The Prayer Scrimmage

The Progression of Prayer – Part 2

The Sport of Prayer – Part 3.2

To be ready for a sport or even gameday, every athlete will need to participate in scrimmages. In football, players scrimmage. In basketball, players scrimmage. In most sports, players participate in scrimmage. In prayer, you need to scrimmage. Allow me to put you at ease as we find that most pray-ers can be intimidated when praying with others. We see this time and time again and I get it. Normal is praying with others and feeling intimidated. In next level prayer, we’re getting beyond normal and creating an environment where a pray-er doesn’t have to feel intimidated and this is where scrimmaging comes into play.

Oftentimes you find yourself in small groups of individuals where prayer is expected. This is an opportunity to get some scrimmage time simply by participating. For example if your church offers smaller prayer meetings or you’re a part of a small group, then you want to join these groups before you try to go full on, in gameday prayer. Ask the group to pray together. I think of smaller groups of pray-ers as a training ground for prayer. Each person obviously is at a different level, but more than that they have different skills, gifts, and talents. For example, I can see why a person who is not gifted at memorizing scripture might be intimidated in the sport of prayer when on the team with someone who has such talent. But what if you used your gift, your talent, when you pray? Using what you have to offer adds to the team and therefore removes the anxiety when it comes to praying with others.

Defining the Prayer Scrimmage
Let’s imagine you have no idea what the word scrimmage means. Think of it as a simulated game or portion of the game. When we have the opportunity to coach church prayer teams, we take the pray-ers through what I call simulated altar-call prayer. We simulate what it’s like to pray for others who request prayer during a worship service. We do this so that our team is ready, comfortable, and set to be as successful as possible. I can’t imagine what it’s like to step up to the front of the church, receive a prayer request from an individual, and be too afraid to pray? This is where a scrimmage is needed to get a pray-er (person who prays) ready. You see, our scrimmages give us the opportunity to pray for someone so that the anxiety of being in front of others is minimized when praying with a stranger.

Places to Participate In Prayer Scrimmage
As you know many sports scrimmage to get their players ready for the game. Some teams have special scrimmage facilities and routines. For a pray-er (person who prays), scrimmage can look like this:

• praying in a small group,
• praying at home with family,
• praying with your ministry teams when you serve at church, and/or
• praying with like-minded coworkers.

I see many ways for people to scrimmage in prayer, these are a few. Scripture says that one should pray at all times, with every kind of prayer. ^[1] The kinds of prayer are limitless. In other words, don’t limit your prayer. It’s like exercising. There are normal routines and then there are modified routines for people at differing fitness levels. Your scrimmage will not only look different due to your fitness level, so to speak, but it will differ by the position you play, the gift you bring.

The Importance of the Prayer Scrimmage
Learning gives you an opportunity to correct what needs to be corrected before gameday and prepare for what may lie ahead. In scrimmage, you will discover that not all games will be played the same, because the opponents as well as the team in which you play (pray) can be more skilled.

I recently was observing one of our simulated altar-call prayer times and I noticed that one student started her introduction over twice. What I observed was that she wasn’t satisfied with how she greeted the person whom she’d pray with. This made me smile as we don’t get a redo on gameday. So the scrimmage is the place where we can improve. This is what Jesus did for his disciples. They sat down with Him and He taught them how to pray. They had a scrimmage in prayer. He said when you pray, say these things. ^[2]

Why scrimmage?
Remember this is next-level prayer, if you want to get better at anything, it requires sharpening your skills. In fact, in scrimmage prayer, it’s a training ground. Therefore, you can learn from the skills, talents, and gifts of others. On a team you have different players: runners, blockers, receivers, defenders, etc. If you’re a defender, then you need training on what it takes to become better at defending. You need to learn from the other defenders (one) and (two) you need to understand the other players so that you know what you’re defending against. The same is true in prayer. There are a number of gifts that present themselves on the teams.

Ask Questions as You Pray
Most people have no idea what to say when they pray. That’s why scrimmaging matters. In prayer it’s okay to ask questions of those who have a talent, skill, or gift that you don’t. Get comfortable with asking questions of your teammates, so that you get better. I recall a time one of the students asked a veteran pray-er, the specifics regarding a scripture reference used. This is why scrimmaging is so beautiful. Not only did the student improve in the sport of prayer, but also in increasing in Bible knowledge. Then there was a couple on one of our prayer teams who made a reference to dating Jesus in prayer. While many may think this is strange, the concept is beautiful. What do I mean by that? What if you could go on a date with Jesus? What would you ask Him or what would you say? In other words, put yourself in front of Him at times. This one thought will change the dynamics of what prayer looks like in your world. It’s the scrimmage that improves practice and ultimately gameday. This is next level prayer!

I know what you’re learning here is a big help. So why not take a few minutes to pray? Take a moment to have your own scrimmage in prayer. Keep in mind that even prayer scrimmages take preparation which leads me to how we better prepare for scrimmage. In our next installment, we will discuss how we prepare for scrimmage, but more importantly how to become the best athlete in prayer that we can possibly become. This is next level prayer!

Question: can you think of any other ways that one can participate in a prayer scrimmage?

Reference #1: ‭‭Ephesians 6:18 BSB‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed March 1, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/3034/EPH.6.18.BSB

Reference #2: Luke 11:1-2 ESV‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed March 1, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/59/LUK.11.1-2.ESV

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.