Our liturgy at IDC finds me ordinarily in charge of three particular elements: the pastoral prayer, sermon, and Lord’s Supper. I find the pastoral prayer to be the most daunting.

By far.

Every week, for six to seven minutes, I stand before my congregation and petition the Lord to answer our needs and send His gospel throughout our city, country, and world. I’ve never been able to adequately put into words exactly why I find the work so formidable . . . until yesterday.

In the course of my afternoon reading I came across Andrew Bonar’s journal entry from December 30, 1835 in which he wrote,

I saw . . . that in prayer the speaker ought to try to move the heart of God and not the feelings of man, and that I should be much more fervent in private prayer.

I put a star next to the sentence, dog-eared the page, laid the book aside, and spent some time in solemn examination for Bonar’s words cut me to the quick. If you, dear pastor, spend any time in public prayer remind yourself this week of these two simple steps to freedom in public prayer.

TWO STEPS TO FREEDOM IN PUBLIC PRAYER

#1: Pray to move the heart of God, not the feelings of men. It is a sad indication of my prideful soul that I often pray with a mind to impress my congregation. What pompous piety. With Paul I cry, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” When we stand before the people of God in intercession and supplication on their behalf, let us fix our gaze on the heart of God, not the praise of men. Let us cry out to Him with loving affection, instead of stilted spiritual jargon mean to paint us as more fervent than we are.

#2: Be persistent in private prayer. We should not expect to have freedom in public prayer when private prayer languishes. Our private familiarity with the throne of grace is God’s catalyst for fervent joy when praying in public. Samuel Miller’s first exhortation to excellence in public prayer is well worth a mention here: “None can hope to attain excellence in the grace and gift of prayer in the public assembly, unless they abound in closet devotion, and in holy communion with God in secret.”

These two points are like immovable cinder blocks of wisdom on which to build your practice of public prayer. Lean on them and lean into them.