5 reasons to come along to Trinity Together

Trinity Together provides us with a monthly opportunity to gather together as a whole church family to pray. It requires no past experience, no-one is expected to pray out loud unless they want to, and it's (genuinely) one of the highlights of my month. I always leave our Trinity Together evenings uplifted, encouraged and empowered as a disciple of Jesus. Here are five brief reasons from the Bible why I’d encourage you to join us for these monthly prayer meetings if you can:

1. Jesus has commanded us to pray together

When Jesus taught us to pray, he began ‘Our Father’ (Matthew 6:9) Whilst personal prayer is vital in the Christian life, there is also an expectation that we will meet together to pray.

2. Praying together was a hallmark of the early church

It’s striking how much time the early Christians spent praying together: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42). At least one reason for these days of great power and advance of the good news was their urgent collective prayer.

3. We are God’s children, and He is our Father.

As Christians, Jesus has brought us into the same spiritual family with the same heavenly Father. Paul writes, “the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15) Prayer is the natural response of those who know God as their Father, and coming together to pray is the natural response of brothers of sisters who share the same heavenly Father.

4. God answers prayers

Jesus puts it very straightforwardly: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8) If we don’t ask for anything, we shouldn’t expect to get anything.

5. Without prayer our calling as a church is impossible

If we think of church as ‘a nice Sunday activity’, prayer will feel unnecessary: what is there to pray about? But our calling from God is to be his salt and light (Matthew 5), his ambassadors among our friends and community (2 Cor. 5), a distinctive holy family, passionately devoted to him (1 Peter 2), and the means by which his gospel of hope rings out across the whole world (Matthew 28). We simply cannot do that in our own strength! Like the early apostles who felt their great weakness, the urgency of the task, and the opposition mounting against them, we need to cry out to God together “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:29-30)

When the apostles prayed, God acted: “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” (Acts 4:31).

Their God is our God. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if their commitment to praying together was ours too?