During a
recent worship service, I remarked to a somewhat smaller crowd than we usually
have, “Remember that Jesus told us, ‘For where two or three are gathered in my
name, there am I in the midst of them.’
I think we have that covered today!”
Obviously, I was emphasizing that even though we had a small crowd of 40,
the Lord was with us anyway. It was a
good point for a pastor to make in those circumstances.
However,
when the service ended, an old friend asked me, “But if the Lord is present
when two or three of us gather, what happens when I am by myself? Am I on my own?” I was momentarily caught off-guard and
clumsily tried to explain myself; it didn’t work and he shook his head and
grinned at me.
Since that
day, I have been thinking about his question.
I have struggled to come up with “the answer” to his question.
The first
thing I did was to find the exact quote from Scripture and examine its
context. The words I used are from
Matthew 18:20. In this verse, Jesus has
just given the parable of the lost sheep; here, the Lord is explaining how each
and every one of us is important, so if even one of us is lost, the Shepherd
leaves his flock and goes in search of that lost sheep and brings that lone
sheep back into the flock. Jesus goes on
to give other evidence and other examples of holding people together in
community and praying and working together.
That was the context in which that quote arrived in Scripture.
So perhaps I
took it out of its proper context and used it for another setting. Completely possible!
But that doesn’t get around the basic
question: what about when we pray alone?
So I checked
the various commentaries that I have in my office. Surprisingly, each and every one of them
emphasized corporate prayer, community prayer, regular gathering of believers
who should pray together, etc. The
overwhelming message is that prayer is IMPORTANT and POWERFUL in the hands of a
group of believers.
But
again…what about when we pray alone? I
found almost nothing…except what was scraping around in my little brain.
I remembered
that even Jesus himself went off and prayed alone. He asked his Apostles to stay awake and to
pray with him in the Garden of Gesthemane, but he ended up alone in
prayer. Often, he also went off alone to
pray.
Are we not
to follow the Lord’s example?
Perhaps the
answer lies in the intent. When we pray
together as a group of believers, we lift our prayers to the Lord
together. Are we more powerful? Does the Lord hear us “extra well”? Or do we just make each other feel better as
we each pray individually? Not
sure. But I do know that if we only pray
alone and never pray with other believers, we are depriving ourselves of
corporate prayer and corporate worship and a loving community of the Lord – the
same community that Jesus calls us into over and over again.
So in the
end, I say to pray alone. Have
conversations with the Lord and have them daily. Pray and ask him for blessings and strength
to face the times of trial. Remember to
pray for others too.
But each
chance you get to pray with others, especially two or three or more, do
it. It’s good for you.
And in both
cases, the Lord is there.
Amen!
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