All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95)

The last main practice that is impressed upon the New Testament assemblies is group prayer. And notice I didn’t just say “prayer”. In fact, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, not as individuals, but as brothers. For He tells them throughout the prayer to pray to “our Father”, for “our sins”, for “our daily bread,” and for the avoidance of “us” being led into temptation. Throughout the New Testament, it’s not individual prayer that’s emphasized and described, but corporate and agreed upon prayer. Now we’ll look at the main New Testament commands for congregations to pray together:

            “. . . rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer . . .” – Ro. 12:12

            “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints . . .” – Eph. 6:18

            “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with . . . thanksgiving . . .” – Col. 4:2

            “. . . pray without ceasing . . .” – 1 Thess. 5:17

            “Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.” – 1 Tim. 2:8

            “. . . confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed . . .” – Jas. 5:16

            “The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.” – 1 Pe. 4:7

One of the most prevalent themes from these passages is the call for devotion to prayer. Nowadays, devotion is an old-fashioned term, but it’s absolutely indispensable for living a fruitful life of godliness. After all, in Acts 2:42, Luke writes that the new assembly members in Jerusalem were all “continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer”. These four practices are clearly the main ones that assemblies must focus on, and all of them are devotions of the saints. Further, all of them are group disciplines, since the first Jerusalem assembly was learning the apostles’ teaching in groups, sharing in fellowship as a group, sharing meals in groups, and, as we see the disciples doing in the upper room before Pentecost, praying in groups. As an aside, when we think of devotions, these are four of the main practices we should think of.

In spite of the fact that all four of these practices are said to have been the devotions of the first assembly, yet only one of them specifically is demanded of believers by the apostles. And we just saw two explicit examples from Romans and Colossians. But what does Paul mean by “prayer”? First, it isn’t synonymous with “requesting” or “petition,” since he distinguishes those two terms in Ephesians 6:18. Nevertheless, you obviously are still praying when you’re “petitioning” God, since he urges the Ephesians to pray with petition in this verse. As “petition” means to make requests from the Lord, it makes sense that by “prayer,” Paul is thinking generically of addressing God, and praising Him while doing so. This inference is supported by the fact that he instructs the saints to use ”all” prayer, or all kinds of general communication with God.

After explaining how believers ought to pray together, Paul then tells us when, which is “at all times”. Since he isn’t demanding anything impossible, he clearly means by this that believers are to pray whenever they think best “in the Spirit,” or by the Holy Spirit’s direction. This is what he means in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, when he famously enjoins Christians to pray without ceasing. Since it’s obviously impossible to use your mind to endlessly talk to the Lord, he’s describing regular, constant, and repetitive praying. In other words, there’s no circumstance when praying — whether it be out loud or in one’s mind – is inappropriate. Every situation in life calls for seeking the Lord for strength, power, and direction.

Thirdly, in the Ephesians verse, Paul emphasizes a faithful congregation’s devotion to prayer by enjoining his audience to be “alert with all perseverance”. He repeats this language in Colossians, where again the words are “keeping alert in it” (Col. 4:2). Peter echoes this concern in his encouragement to pray in 1 Peter 4:7, where he prefaces his injunction with “be of sound judgment and sober spirit”. From these words, it’s plain that our praying isn’t to be haphazard, flippant, or unthinking. We must pray thoughtfully, wisely, and logically. Thus, we need to motivate and direct our prayers with careful understanding of our lives, and of our brethren’s lives. In fact, it’s notable that the first practice Peter mentions after giving concluding instructions on how to live in the light of “the end of all things” is prayer. Then, he first addresses prayer after describing the way in which believers should think – with good judgment and soberness. Thus, for Peter, prayer as God’s people is the top priority for living appropriately to the nearness of the end.

A fourth implication that can be deduced from the above passages is that petition is to be focused on asking for the needs of the saints. Paul implies this when he specifically explains that alertness and perseverance should primarily be used in connection with “petition for all the saints”. Nowhere in the apostles’ writings do they specifically instruct a general audience of Christians to pray for unbelievers (yet I’ll mention how Paul implies this in 1 Timothy 2). Rather, most mentions of petitioning in the New Testament are made with regard to the needs of believers, as Paul also asks both the Ephesians and Colossians to pray for him in the conclusion to these passages.

The final thing that should be pointed out from these instructions on prayer is that men are to lead in prayer. This is taught by Paul’s command in 1 Timothy 2:8, where he explicitly addresses “the men” to pray “in every place.” In the context of this chapter, he is beginning to instruct in the relationships between men and women in the assembly, and he begins by calling for prayer for “all people” based on God’s desire “for all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth” (2:4). The picture he’s painting is of multiple assemblies in one area being led by the men in those places, first of all in their group prayer. It can’t be denied that he’s talking about males here, since in the next verse he instructs “the women” in how they should behave in a similar manner.

But he doesn’t stop with the gender of the saints who are leading the prayers. He further urges that they must match their prayer leadership with their pure character. Although it’s universally required of believers to pray to the Lord with sincere and pure hearts, yet Paul here reminds Timothy and his congregations that prayer leaders must be leading holy lives that are free from “wrath and dissension”. This is what he means by describing them as having “holy hands”. Since one’s hands represent one’s lifestyle, Paul is speaking of men with holy lifestyles.

Finally, group prayer for the early assemblies wasn’t only a practice for the whole congregation, but an intimate part of their more personal friendships. We see this beautifully illustrated by James’ exhortation for his audiences to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (Jas. 5:16). In this verse, he’s urging the saints to not only pray in general for their brethren, but to pray specifically for one another’s struggles with sin. However, what is necessary for such prayer relationships to be fruitful is that brothers and sisters acknowledge each other’s sins to one another. Only when such open and intimate relationships are invested in can such praying yield deep, powerful, and healing results through God’s answer to loving prayers.

Besides this evidence from the New Testament letters that group prayer is an essential and powerful practice that assemblies must devote themselves to, we could also simply survey the Book of Acts for instances of prayer. In almost every example of prayer that’s recounted in that record, the type of praying is group prayer, not individual prayer. Hence, the emphasis in the New Testament for prayer is the community nature of believer’s prayers. One of the reasons for this is that, ultimately, every believer’s prayers don’t stand on their own, but work in concert with all the prayers of the saints around the world in the accomplishment of God’s purposes on earth, until all the nations are discipled, and the Lord’s body comes “to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Eph. 4:13).