In a day and age when prayer meetings are becoming a thing of the past, you’re to be commended for keeping them alive! You have the heart and desire to lead your congregation in prayer or you wouldn’t be here, so let’s talk about the “how to’s” of a prayer meeting.
A great guide is the acrostic P.R.A.Y. You can use this as your guide and lead your congregation through it step by step as you direct them in prayer. Let’s talk about some general principles and then walk through the acrostic together.
General principles:
- Before you lead others to pray, make sure you have prayed yourself. Ask God to guide you by His Spirit as you prepare for the prayer meeting and as you lead it that night. Pray that His presence will be obvious and that there will be a genuine spirit of praise and prayer in the people.
- Prepare! This principle ties into principle #1. Take time to prepare. Write out a game plan and what God has put on your heart. You may change some aspects of it, but begin with a plan.
- Don’t “put people on the spot.” Don’t call on someone to pray or read Scripture unless you’ve talked to them previously and you know they are comfortable with it.
- In most churches, people don’t know how to pray publicly or with each other. So, you will need to take some time to teach them some principles from Scripture. For instance, did you know that the “model prayer” of Matthew 6 is filled with use of the plural pronoun—indicating our need and pattern to pray with and for others? You could do this a little each week, or take a week or two before you begin following the acrostic below.
- Know that your congregation will grow to the level of prayer that you lead them to. Their level will reflect your level. If you are a pray-er; they will become pray-ers. If you are not; they will struggle to become pray-ers as well.
- Move away from the cliché prayers and the multiple requests all at one time that lead people to pray, “God we lift these requests up to you and ask you to bless them” (which is code for “I can’t remember them all).”
- Finally, even with the acrostic as a guide, vary from week to week exactly what it looks like. You can vary things by doing some aspects individually, some as a very small group, or some as a whole congregation together. You can also vary the time by focusing more on one particular aspect of the acrostic each week. If you do it the same every week, it will become a rut (and you know what a rut is—a coffin with the ends kicked out).
With these principles in mind, let’s now look at the P.R.A.Y. acrostic and how you can walk your church through them together.
Praise
Praise is simply a time of “bragging” on God for Who He is and what He has done! The model prayer in Matthew 6 begins and ends with praise, so it makes sense that we should begin with praise as well.
You might want to use pre-recorded, online music, or live music to lead this time. You can sing along or just listen in meditation. Both are very effective. In fact, it’s good to vary your music from week to week (remember principle #7 from above).
You could also read a praise passage from the Psalms, ask others to share their favorite Psalm, or have people share praise reports of what they have seen God do in the last week or two.
You can even have people call out in one or two words a name or character trait of God that means much to them. You would be surprised at how powerful this can be.
You might even want to provide, after the large group times, a time for them to silently bow their heads alone and cry out to God in personal praise…or even do so in very small groups (as a family, couple, or those sitting by each other).
Repent
Repentance is the confessing and turning away from sin. The Bible speaks of two broad categories—individual/personal sin and corporate sin (like that of a nation or church).
Psalm 51 is probably the best-known personal prayer of repentance (David confessing his sin of adultery and murder). You may want to read it, have them read it, or just allude to it. Then, you will want to allow some private time of asking God to “search their hearts.” Than would then naturally be followed with a time of confessing and repenting of what God has shown them.
Daniel 9 and Ezra 9 are two great passages on corporate repentance. In each of these, Daniel and Ezra pray for the sins of the nation. Both prayers are powerful and very helpful in helping us know how to pray for the sins of our nation. You might want to read one of these (or part of it) and then lead the congregation to pray individually, in a small group, or corporately confessing the sins of the nation and/or church. You may even want to encourage them to kneel or fall flat on their face in a posture of humbleness before the Lord as these men did.
Ask
Asking is simply crying out to God—interceding for others and ourselves. The Bible is filled with prayers of intercession for others and requests for one’s own needs. The “model prayer” itself includes a request for provision, help, and protection.
The challenge here becomes “how” to do it effectively and with what focus. Some churches allow people to stand up and share requests while others use printed lists. Still others just encourage people to begin praying their request.
As far as “how,” it seems to be much more effective to share one request at a time and then take time immediately to pray for it. That way, everyone remembers the request and can pray appropriately (rather than the generic “God bless” blanket prayer). It also teaches people not to be thinking ahead about their requests, but rather focus on the one at hand.
As far as focus, you will want to help your congregation focus on the spiritual as well as the physical. Most prayer meetings end up focusing on sickness and health. That is not wrong; there is a place for it and God encourages it! But one needs to remember the spiritual aspect as well. Remember the paralyzed man where Jesus forgave his sin first, then healed him physically? Spiritual healing, then physical healing. You can help the Body by asking them to think about “where is the sick person spiritually—lost, in need of encouragement, struggling, etc.?” The answer to that question helps them better know how and what to pray.
Also, you as the pastor can help them focus on the spiritual directly. You might say, “I bet all of you here have 2-3 people who as far as you know are lost. Would you take some time to pray for them by name right now?” Or you might say, “I bet most of you here have a loved one or friend who is struggling spiritually or has drifted away from the Lord. Would you take some time to pray for them by name right now?”
Yield
yielding is saying “yes” to God and yielding to His will over ours. Jesus practiced this in the garden before His crucifixion when He cried out, “Not My will, but Yours be done.” He taught the same principle in the “model prayer” when He taught His disciples (and us) to pray “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done.”
This can be done corporately or privately, but it should be done. It helps us to remember that His ways are “higher” than ours and that He knows much more than we know. We pray and ask, but in the end, we submit to His will. This may be the shortest aspect of them all, but it is no less important. God honors our trust and humility before Him.
With these principles and the acrostic P.R.A.Y., you ought to be able to lead an effective prayer meeting that honors God and brings joy to Him. As you prepare and as you lead, be sensitive to His Spirit. He cherishes the prayers of His people!
