When we think of worship, our thoughts almost always gravitate to singing—the two have become inseparable and almost synonymous in our minds and in our church services. Yet singing is actually just one component of worship. We worship when we sing, but we also worship when we read Scripture, when we listen to a sermon, when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and when we fellowship together.
And of course, if all that is true, then we also worship when we pray. In fact, prayer is integral to our worship, for if we are to worship God in Spirit and in truth, we must have God’s help, which is exactly why a prayer of invocation is a traditional element of a service. It is through prayer that we express our dependence upon God and through prayer that we call upon him—invoke him—to be present with us and to enable us to worship him in ways that are pleasing to him.
Through prayer, we acknowledge that without God’s help, our best worship will be nothing but a passionate, heartfelt sin. As Robert Kendall points out, we cannot worship without praying any more than we can live without breathing.
