Gospel-Shaped Prayers

Every Sunday our congregation recites a corporate prayer adapted from a passage of Scripture. We call this portion of our service "Praying the Scriptures Together," and I write a new one for us each month. Here is an example, our prayer from January:

Father,

"Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

"You have redeemed us in your steadfast love
You have guided us by your strength to your holy abode.
You have conquered the enemy
And purchased us from the dead.
You will plant us on your own mountain,
the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode,
the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.
You, O LORD will reign forever and ever."

We pray these things in Your Son, by Your Spirit, and for Your glory,

Amen.

(from Exodus 15:11-18)

You get the idea. (This month's prayer is adapted from Daniel 9.)

Every one of these prayers ends the same way:

We pray these things in Your Son, by Your Spirit, and for Your glory: Amen."

Why do we do this? Because it helps us to, in the words of Fred Sanders, "pray with the grain." Here's what Graham Cole says:

"To pray to the Father in the name of the Son in reliance upon the Spirit is to rehearse the very structure of the gospel."

Adapting our prayers from Scripture and ending our prayers with this Trinitarian address is our way of praying gospel-shaped prayers, of praying with the grain.

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