When I joined my college’s synchronized swimming team, I found the sport incredibly difficult. It wasn’t the flips and kicks and surface dives that gave me trouble; it was synchronizing with my teammates. At first, I tried to watch the other swimmers out of the corner of my eye, matching my motions to theirs. But I quickly realized that this strategy just caused me to lag behind. The only way for the whole team to align was if we each focused on stable points outside ourselves: the beats of the music and our position in the pool.
We sometimes approach prayer with other people like rookie synchronized swimmers. We know that Jesus tells us to “agree” with others in prayer, and we desire his promised blessing (“my Father. . .will do it for you”), but we aren’t always sure how to align ourselves. Do we figure out what everyone else wants and pray that? Or do we try to convince others to go along with our prayers? For a group with diverse personalities, needs, and priorities, agreeing in prayer can seem impossible.
But Jesus himself provides us with the unchanging focal point that brings us into harmony. We pray together as his followers, under his direction, by his intercession, and for his glory. When we end our prayers, “In Jesus’s name, amen” we aren’t reciting a meaningless formula; we are humbly submitting all of our individual wills to his one perfect will.
We pray in his name, with his brothers and sisters, asking for things that please him. Then, he promises: “I am there.” When we agree in prayer, Jesus will draw near.
Megan Hill is the author of Praying Together: The Priority and Privilege of Prayer in Our Homes, Communities, and Churches. You can follow her on Twitter at @mevanshill. These devotions draw upon themes in Praying Together by Megan Hill, ©2016, published by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. www.crossway.org.
