US

Have you ever thought about the fact that The Lord's Prayer is plural? It begins "Our Father." It continues with "Give us. . .", "Lead us. . .", "Deliver us. . ." I believe there is a sense in which our most public prayers should be prayed as if we were closeted with God. And yet there is a sense in which our most private prayers are prayed as a church. We are to pray in union with one another. I once had a covenant with a Christian brother that when either of us was tempted sexually he would immediately pray for the other. We need to pray as children of the same Father facing a common enemy. We are to see one another's hurts and hopes and needs as our own. We are to come to our Father as a family.

This is not to say we should never pray, "Forgive me. . .", "Lead me. . .", "Help me. . ." But we also need to stretch our prayer to embrace our spiritual family. This has been crucial for the church down through the ages. Believers survived terrible opposition because they faced it together. I believe it is just as important in these last days that seem to be coming upon us.