3. Leading worship 17/08/08 - Planned prayer

5 leading worship 17/08/08 - resources for public prayer 4. Leading worship 17/08/08 - types of public prayer 2. Leading worship 17/08/08 - video intro 1. Leading worship - song list & planning

18th August 2008
I wrote out a prayer of confession to use during our time. I've included the prayer here along with some thoughts on writing out your prayers for worship leading.

Praying public prayers
The main difference between private and public prayers is that public prayer exists in two dimensions: for the blessing of God and of those gathered in the meeting. In 1 Cor 14, Paul is addressing the issue of intelligibility in corporate gatherings, specifically praying in tongues. He says, ‘If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say "Amen" to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified.’ (v16-17) Earlier in the chapter, Paul calls the Corinthians to ‘strive to excel in building up the church’ (v12). Our meetings should serve to build each other up, and our corporate prayers play a vital role in this.

Spontaneous or planned?
Although there will always be room for spontaneous public prayer in Glenabbey, we would do well to remember that spontaneous prayers are no more (or less) spiritual than spontaneous song choices. The Spirit can guide our choosing of songs before a meeting; he can also guide us as we think in advance of the meeting how we might voice our prayers. In fact, DA Carson spells out one of the potential problems when prayer is not thought out much in advance at all. ‘In non-liturgical churches, many prayers are so predictable that they are scarcely any more spontaneous than written prayers, and most of them are not nearly as well crafted.’

I will often use spontaneous prayer as I feel appropriate when I'm leading. But I also regularly plan out my prayers. Not just when I'm going to include them, but how I'm going to phrase them. This may be as simple as juts jotting down a few of the phrases I'll include. Sometimes, howevere, I write them out in more detail, especially if they're going to be a bit longer.

That was the case last Sunday. I'd wanted to build in some time to reflect on what we'd been considering of God's mercy. And I wanted us to have a chance to repent and ask God for forgiveness for ourselves. As we humble ourselves in our need before God, we're less likely to be quick to judge others.

A Prayer of confession

O merciful God of blinding light, you who searches out all our hearts,
It is for our good when you give us a glimpse of who we truly are.

My sin is my great enemy; my pride blinds me to my own failings and leads me to magnify the failings of others.
It makes me quick to judge and slow to be grateful
It makes me quick to jump to conclusions and slow to show compassion
It makes me quick to criticise others and slow to recognise my own need of you

Oh God, who is full of grace and truth,
Shine the light of your truth into my heart to expose
But reveal your grace to forgive and restore
Show me my intensions, my pretensions to grandeur
But then fill my vision with the vast expanse of your mercy
as it washes over me in Christ Jesus
Reveal the depths on my need
but amaze me at the fact that your grace far exceeds my darkest sin.

And as I think of others, may my thoughts, words and actions reflect to them the mercy that has been shown to me.

Soften my heart towards those I meet; may I be quickly moved to compassion; and may the patience I show them be an echo of the unfathomable patience that has been shown to me.

O merciful God of blinding light, guide me into truth and shape me with your love, that my transformed life may point to the glory of my gracious Saviour.

A resource that might help you think through a bit more how we might develop our prayer life in our corporate meetings can be found on our website.

Next time on the blog, we'll think a bit about the different types of prayer that we can include in our corporate meetings. Still to come in this series is the full piano score for the arrangement of How deep the Father's love Al's band did on 17th August.

Alistair Hamill