Public Prayer

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Public Prayer

Supplications   Petitions

Prioritize   Offer   Encompass

Pray For All People

Ransomed

(Photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture:   First Timothy 2:1

The first thing that I ask is that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for all people.

Reflection

Do you find it hard to pray for certain people?

There might be people with whom you have a difficult relationship. You might have been arguing with them recently. You might not agree with certain people who have different political beliefs. Some people might have treated you badly.

Paul encourages us in this reading from First Timothy to enlarge our approach to prayer. He is challenging us pray for all people.

Public prayer speaks to this larger perspective. We all try to pray privately using prayers that we have been taught and bible readings with which we are comfortable. Public prayer invites us to see many events in our everyday lives and many different places as possibilities to raise our voices to God or to simply be silent and listen to what God wants to say to us.

This can lead to our supplications during which we can beg God for assistance to deal with difficult situations. I can think of times in my life when those I love deeply were facing challenging medical conditions and I turned to God for help. Those prayers can be lifted up (and certainly were!) in very public places like doctor offices and hospital waiting rooms. 

This can lead also to our petitions where we pray in a very public way for an end to war and the exploitation and suffering of people throughout the world. Those petitions come from our hearts as we feel the pain and hardship that so many are experiencing. 

We have to make sure that our priorities are established. We all have a tendency to put ourselves first. We have to offer our prayers for all people. We have to encompass that vision of Jesus as we pray for others and not just for our own needs.

The difficulty in Paul's challenge to us is definitely that word "all". There are certain people that we tend to leave off our prayer list. Perhaps what Jesus is telling us is that the people we find it hardest to pray for are the ones we should pray for the most. 

We need to drop our "enemies list" and realize that Jesus came to ransom all of us and not just the people that we might like. Our public prayer must include everyone. 

It's Prayer Time!!

1. Are there certain people for whom you find it hard to pray?

2. Can you pray for those on the other end of the political spectrum from you?

3. Are there certain public places where you are comfortable praying?

4. How do you overcome the tendency to put yourself and your own needs first as you pray?

5. What do you feel as you reflect on Kathy's photo?

(Scripture adaptation, reflection, and questions by John J. McNamara)