Within the Title of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Like each different Catholic baby rising up within the Nineteen Sixties, I discovered the signal of the cross as a typical approach of starting prayer. It concerned each motion and phrases. You made a easy movement, first touching your brow (saying, “Within the identify of the Father”), then your chest (“. . . and of the Son”), and at last your left and proper shoulders (“. . . and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”). I confess I hadn’t thought of this since I used to be a boy, nevertheless it got here again to me just lately as I used to be writing on Trinitarian prayer. If nothing else, I used to be educated very younger to suppose that prayer concerned the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This was a gracious reward of God, regardless that it made little affect on the time.
After a long time of studying the Bible, following Jesus Christ, and collaborating in numerous worship companies, I’m extra satisfied than ever that prayer is and must be Trinitarian. After all, this doesn’t imply that each single prayer should reference the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However for prayer to be really Christian, it should persistently bear witness to the three-in-one.
The Trinity in Creation and Redemption
The explanation prayer is actually Trinitarian is as a result of, in accordance with Scripture, every part is Trinitarian. Genesis 1 and John 1 bear witness to the exercise of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in creation.
At first, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was with out type and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Gen. 1:1–2)
At first was the Phrase, and the Phrase was with God, and the Phrase was God. He was to start with with God. All issues had been made by him, and with out him was not any factor made that was made. (John 1:1–3)
Praying in Public by Pat Quinn is a complete guidebook designed to assist readers take into consideration, put together, and pray biblically wealthy, gospel-centered prayers as an act of company worship.
Second Thessalonians 2:13–14 and different passages equally present Trinitarian cooperation within the work of salvation.1
However we ought at all times to present because of God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, as a result of God selected you because the firstfruits to be saved, by sanctification by the Spirit and perception within the fact. To this he known as you thru our gospel, so that you could be receive the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess. 2:13–14)
John Body properly summarizes the mutual deity and work of the Trinity in creation and salvation: “All three stand collectively as Creator and Savior. Scripture joins them collectively in contexts of reward and thanksgiving. They’re the last word object of the believer’s belief and hope. What else can they probably be, aside from one, one way or the other threefold God?”2
The Trinity and Prayer
This Trinitarian mutuality impacts public prayer in two methods. First, every member of the Trinity is intimately concerned within the very act of praying. Because the previous saying goes, we pray to the Father, by the Son, by the facility of the Spirit. Paul Miller helpfully elaborates on the mysterious Trinitarian interaction within the act of praying:
Even now I usually don’t notice that I’m praying. Presumably, it isn’t even me praying, however the Spirit. Paul mentioned, “God has despatched the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:6). The Spirit is just not aiding us to wish; he’s the one who is definitely praying. He’s the pray-er. Extra particularly, it’s the Spirit of his Son praying. The Spirit is bringing the childlike coronary heart of Jesus into my coronary heart and crying Abba, Father. Jesus’s eager for his Father turns into my longing. My spirit meshes with the Spirit, and I, too, start to cry, Father.3
Whereas Miller is speaking in regards to the Trinity transferring us in private prayer, the identical is true in public prayer. The Holy Spirit strikes leaders to arrange and pray Christlike prayers to the Father on behalf of his gathered kids.
The Holy Spirit strikes leaders to arrange and pray Christlike prayers to the Father on behalf of his gathered kids.
Second, because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equally divine and important for our salvation, it makes excellent biblical, theological, and sensible sense that we might refer to every of them in prayer. Discover how Paul does this in Ephesians 3:14–19. He prays to the Father that the Ephesians can be strengthened by the Spirit in order that the Son would dwell of their hearts by religion. This sort of Trinitarian prayer is just not merely a formulation to observe; it’s the pure motion of a thoughts instructed in gospel fact and a coronary heart enflamed by gospel grace.
Whereas the conventional follow for Christians is to wish to the Father by the Son by the facility of the Spirit, it is usually biblical from time to time to handle Jesus in prayer (John 14:13–14). Praying to the Holy Spirit (versus “in” the Spirit—see Eph. 6:18; Jude 20) appears extra problematic. There isn’t a biblical precedent for praying on to the Holy Spirit, and for good purpose. He’s essentially the most self-effacing member of the Trinity who likes to level to Jesus and apply his work to our lives. However it is usually true that he’s equally God and worshiped with the Father and the Son. And as it may be mentioned of the Father and Son, so additionally of the Spirit: with out him we might nonetheless be useless in our sins and completely unable to wish in any respect. Due to this fact, it’s acceptable to reward the Holy Spirit and to often petition him in public prayer. Keith Getty’s hymn “Holy Spirit” begins, “Holy Spirit, dwelling Breath of God, breathe new life into my prepared soul.”4 Getty’s ideas on the track are related to addressing the Holy Spirit in prayer: “‘Holy Spirit’ is the ultimate hymn I wrote with Stuart Townend as a part of the Apostle’s Creed album we created in 2005. On this explicit track, we desired the hymn to perform as a sung prayer in regards to the Holy Spirit’s renewing energy.”5
Matthew Henry’s prayer of adoration is an effective instance of Trinitarian prayer:
We pay our homage to a few that bear report in heaven, the Father, the Phrase, and the Holy Ghost: for these three are one. We love thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth; and the everlasting Phrase, who was to start with with God, and was God, by whom all issues had been made, and with out whom was not something made that was made. . . . We additionally worship the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, whom the Son has despatched from the Father, even the Spirit of fact, who proceedeth from the Father, and who is distributed to show us all issues, and to carry all issues to remembrance.6
Henry’s prayer concisely exalts the Father because the “Lord of heaven and earth,” Christ as “the everlasting Phrase . . . by whom all issues had been made,” and the Holy Spirit as “the Comforter . . . despatched to show us all issues.” The thoughts is enlightened and the guts enflamed in reward to the fantastic three-in-one. That is the purpose of excellent public prayer.
Notes:
- See additionally Rom. 1:1–6; Gal. 3:10–14; Eph. 1:3–14; Col. 1:3–8; 1 Thess. 1:1–5; Titus 3:4–7.
- John Body, The Doctrine of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2002), 643.
- Paul Miller, A Praying Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2009), 64–65.
- Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, “Holy Spirit” (Getty Music Label, 2019).
- Keith Getty, quoted in Bob Kauflin, Worship Issues (weblog), August 10, 2012, worshipmatters.com/2012/08/10/holy-spirit-breath-of-god-gettytownend-hymn/.
- Matthew Henry, A Methodology for Prayer, ed. J. Ligon Duncan (Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 1994), 24–25.
This text is customized from Praying in Public: A Guidebook for Prayer in Corporate Worship by Pat Quinn.
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