The worshiper who would pray in the assembly must do more than bow his head and close his eyes. He must pray. “Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say ‘Amen’ at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say?<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:16). This verse suggests four requirements if one is to enter into prayer.<\/p>\n One cannot legitimately say “Amen” at the conclusion of a prayer if he has not listened to the prayer. “Mind-wandering” is an ever-present problem. We sing, but we don’t observe the words of the song. We bow our heads, but we don’t listen to the prayer. We sit through the sermon, but our minds wander to things of an earthly nature. Consequently, we attend worship periods, but we don’t worship as we ought. If one is to pray, with the congregation, he must listen to the prayer.<\/p>\n When a man in the first century led a prayer in an unknown tongue, the worshiper could not say ‘Amen,’ for he could not understand the language in which the prayer was spoken. Neither can the worshiper say ‘Amen’ today if the leader has not spoken loudly enough to be heard or if he has used words or phrases that the worshiper does not understand. Those who lead prayers in the assembly should be conscious of the needs of the whole congregation, speaking up where all can hear and using words that all can understand.<\/p>\n A number of years ago, while sitting beside an old preacher, I observed his saying “Yes” or “Yes, Lord” at the conclusion of each separate phrase of the prayer as it was being led. He spoke the words softly enough that I was probably the only one in the assembly who could hear them, but I was impressed. Obviously, this brother was listening to every phrase, determining whether or not he agreed with the phrase, and was softly speaking his agreement. He was not just sitting through prayer; he was praying. Occasionally, we hear sentiments expressed in prayer with which we do not agree. To these sentiments, we cannot say “Amen.”<\/p>\n The word “Amen” means “so let it be.” We long to hear the strong, resounding “Amen” at the close of prayers which we used to hear. We fear that the move away from this practice is just another step toward cold, lifeless formality in our worship periods. We are not contending, however, that one must say the word “Amen” audibly; but we are suggesting that at least in his mind he should say “Amen,” thus making the prayer his own prayer. He has listened to the prayer; he has understood the prayer; he has agreed with the prayer; now he speaks to God his “Amen” or approval of the prayer as his prayer. In this manner, he unites with other worshipers in common prayer to God.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bill Hall in The Bulletin of the Church of Christ at New Georgia, September 30, 2007; via The Gospel Observer, December 30, 2007 The worshiper who would pray in the assembly must do more than bow his head and close his eyes. He must pray. “Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1510],"class_list":["post-56009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-prayers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54703,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-bow-during-a-prayer-offered-by-someone-who-does-not-live-a-christian-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":56009,"position":0},"title":"Is it wrong to bow during a prayer offered by someone who does not live a Christian life?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My brother often leads prayer at family gatherings. I have a problem with this. He drinks alcohol daily, often is intoxicated, and lives a sexually immoral life. When he says, \"Let's pray,\" everyone bows their heads. My husband is always present and sometimes he does lead the prayer.\u00a0 My\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23862,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-prayers-ended-with-in-jesus-name-amen\/","url_meta":{"origin":56009,"position":1},"title":"Why are prayers ended with “In Jesus’ name, Amen”?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why, when we pray, should we close the prayer with, \"In Jesus name, amen\"? Answer: The word \"amen\" is a transliterated word from the Hebrew language. Wilson's Old Testament Word Studies defines it as meaning, \"Let it be granted, let it be done, and unalterably confirmed.\" It can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37349,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-christian-believe-in-god-and-not-believe-in-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":56009,"position":2},"title":"Can a Christian believe in God and not believe in prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a Christian believe in God but not believe in prayer? I'm a member of the church but I don't believe in prayer? How do I overcome that? Answer: Let's work backward. You say you don't believe in prayer, yet the Bible says that Jesus taught, \"Then He spoke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89816,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-you-pray-that-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":56009,"position":3},"title":"Would You Pray that Prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jonathan Banning In Psalm 7, King David makes a shocking petition to God, \"O' Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is injustice in my hands... let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; and let him trample my life down to the ground and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28449,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-bad-to-keep-on-praying-the-same-prayer-all-over-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":56009,"position":4},"title":"Is it bad to keep on praying the same prayer all over again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This is a question about prayer. Is it bad to keep on praying the same prayer all over again? It could be from desperation, or it can be another reason. For example, you have a problem or worry you share with the Lord and you think that you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32093,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-is-the-correct-lords-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":56009,"position":5},"title":"Which is the correct Lord’s Prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The Lord's Prayer: \u00a0Protestants say \"for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever\" but Catholics do not. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Which is correct? Thanks much. Answer: \"In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}He must listen to the prayer.<\/h2>\n
He must understand the prayer.<\/h2>\n
He must agree with the prayer.<\/h2>\n
He must say “Amen.”<\/h2>\n