I recently volunteered to lead a weekly prayer meeting, so I've been reading up on how to do that, what the goal of such meetings is/could be, and so on.
One of the things I read that really caught my attention was the idea that all or most prayer in the Bible was actually done communally. Many of the psalms were meant to be sung by a congregation, Jesus said "When two or more come together in my name" (Matthew 28:20) and not 'one', and many of the prayers of Old Testament leaders were said aloud, to the whole nation of Israel. Honestly, when I first read this, I couldn't think of a single example of anyone praying alone! (I have since thought of several: Jesus going off alone to pray, Moses speaking to God "face to face" (Exodus 33:11) (and alone) on Mount Sinai, Jonah praying to God while he's sitting above Ninevah).
It also made me think about my own prayer life. I've been praying a lot more lately, much more than I ever used to, but I hardly ever pray with a group. But praying together, as a group, and coming together for a common purpose, is obviously very important to God.
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