The Prayer of Invocation: Asking for God’s Blessing
As we continue to look at our order of worship, the Prayer of Invocation follows the Call to Worship, serving as our response to God’s gracious invitation into His presence each Lord’s Day. It is our earnestly request that God to use the means of grace as means of grace to those who are present.
Understanding the Prayer of Invocation
The term “invocation” means to call upon or invoke, to call upon God for His blessing. In the Prayer of Invocation, we are not asking for God’s presence as if He were absent—God is present before we begin! Rather, we are asking God to bless our time of worship. This prayer reflects our understanding that without God’s help, our worship is nothing more than an empty ritual.
Among other things, we are asking God that those who are dead in sin would be made alive by the power of the Spirit (1 Pet. 1:23). We are asking that the faith that the Spirit has put into us be stirred up (2 Tim. 1:6). And we are asking that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:1-2). In short, we are asking that God work in us through the Means of Grace that He is serving us with on the Lord’s Day.
Scriptural Foundations for the Prayer of Invocation
The Prayer of Invocation is deeply rooted in Scripture. Throughout Scripture, we see God’s people calling upon Him for His presence and guidance in their gatherings. In the the Psalms specifically, we find many prayers of invocation.
One such example can be found in Psalm 105:4, which instructs us to, “Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore!” This call to seek God’s presence underscores the necessity of His guidance and strength in our worship. In another place, we find David also offered an invocation for God’s blessing in a song of praise in Psalm 67:1: “God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us.”
Significance of the Prayer of Invocation
Dependence: It acknowledges our dependence on the Holy Spirit. We need the Spirit to enable us to worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24). These petitions express longing for God as well as deep dependence and humility. Invocations acknowledge that the power in worship is a gift from God rather than a human accomplishment, and they explicitly confess that we approach God only through Christ.
Invitation: By inviting God’s blessing, we are not inviting God into our space but asking Him to shape us through His service.
Acknowledgment: It acknowledges that God is sovereign and central in worship. We are not initiating worship but responding to God’s initiative, seeking His blessing in all that we do.
An Example of a Prayer of Invocation
A Prayer of Invocation may sound something like this:
Almighty God,
We come before You, as your people, with hearts full of praise for Your majesty and grace. You are the Creator of all things, the Lord of glory, and the Savior of our souls. We confess our unworthiness to enter Your presence, yet we come boldly because of the blood of Jesus, which has cleansed us from all sin.
We humbly ask that Your Holy Spirit guide us in our worship. Illuminate our minds to understand Your truth, and open our hearts to receive Your Word with joy. We pray that those who are dead in sin would be made alive by the power of Your Spirit, and that the faith the you have given us be stirred.
Be present among us, Lord, as we lift our voices in song, as we hear Your Word proclaimed, and as we partake in the means of grace. Transform us by the renewing of our minds and equip us to live for Your glory.
We pray all these things in the precious name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Understanding these things, may we come each Lord’s Day with hearts ready to seek Him and hands open to receive His grace. As we pray this prayer, may we do so with an understanding of what it is, knowing that we come to worship not on our own terms but by God’s grace, and that we need His Spirit to worship Him in spirit and truth.
This post is part of our series: Liturgy, A Gospel Conversation