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February 2008, Page 6.
Index of articles:
by subject,
by date.
In this issue:
(February 2008)
Service books,
Hymn,
Prayer,
Question.
In our "Questions to the clergy" slot, John will try to answer any query you throw at him, without hesitation, deviation or repetition...
Favouritism in prayer?
Q. I remember when I used to go to church we used to pray for the Queen every service. Don’t you think other people need praying for too? Is it right to single out individuals in prayer - shouldn’t we really pray for everyone?
A. I think we should pray for lots or people but I think we should pray specifically for individuals too.
The reason the Church of England used to pray for the Queen every week is that St Paul wrote that we should in one of his letters: “First of all, I urge that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgivings be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority ...” (1 Tim 2:1). You’ll see he does say “everyone”, but he also says some people in particular. When the prayer book was written the king was much more active in governing England, so Cranmer wrote prayers for the king instead of the Prime Minister as he would have done nowadays.
The problem with praying everything for everyone is that our minds aren’t big enough for us to get our heads round what we mean. Prayer means talking to God, and we can’t talk about everything all at the same time - we can only talk about one thing at once. When we talk to friends we talk about the things which are on our heart, and St Paul is saying it should be the same when we talk to God.
If you read St Paul, you’ll see he doesn’t just pray for them generally. “This is my prayer for you ...” he says, and then he says what he’s asking for (Phil 1:9-10). “I keep asking God to give you ...” he says, and then he gives a list of requests (Eph 1:17-19). And when he asks for prayers for himself, he asks for specific requests: “Pray that God may open a door for my message, pray that I may speak clearly” (Col 4:3-4). Somebody once said to me that when you pray, it isn’t a real prayer unless when you look back you can tell whether it’s been answered. If we find ourselves only ever praying vague prayers, we ought to ask ourselves what we want God to do - then our prayers might be a bit more to the point.
And another thing: St Paul says we should pray for people so we can join them in rejoicing when God answers the prayers and meets their needs (2 Cor 1:11). How can we do that if we were so vague that we can’t tell if God answered or not?
So I think we should pray for lots of people, but we should pray definite prayers for particular people as we pray.
John Hartley