Liturgy: The Prayer of Illumination
This is part five in a series on the liturgy at Renovation Church, which is a part of a larger series on worship. For an explanation of what liturgy is, start here. To go back to the beginning of our series on worship, click here.
We all need help; sometimes it is hard to ask for it. If anyone reading this knows me and my wife, you probably know that we are renovating our house. Going from renters to owners was a tall order considering we did not buy a house that was already done the way we wanted it. There have been mountain tops as well as valleys with home renovation. I had little expertise going into the process. I needed help. One of my constant struggles in the process is recognizing that my wife is learning just as much as I am and asking her for her help. I think that I can just muscle through leveling the molding or force two 45 degree angles that ought to fit perfectly but nevertheless act like opposing puzzle pieces. I need help, and my pride shows when I think I can do it on my own even with a wonderful wife who is able and willing just sitting in the other room. The reality is, our lives and souls need renovating and we do ourselves no help by attempting to do it on our own. The question is: when do we ask for help in our worship service?
Surely most of our service is built with the recognition that we need God to act in our hearts and minds. After all, we are coming to God in faith knowing and trusting that He has promised to use His means of grace to grow, strengthen, and encourage our souls in this life for living in service to His glory. This is all inherent to the worship service; it is built into the fact that we are coming, trusting, and worshiping. But, when do we ask? This is a noble question. And, the answer is that we ask during one of the shortest prayers. This prayer is called the prayer for illumination. This is a prayer offered up as a petition, or request, right before the sermon. In recognition that we cannot fathom the depths of the mind of God revealed to us in His Word, we ask the Spirit of God to illuminate our minds and open our hearts. We ask the Spirit for help as we prepare to hear from Christ in his word and through the minister’s sermon.
Without the Spirit convicting God’s people concerning sin and righteousness and revealing the deep things of God, we are in danger of turning a sermon into something it is not. We need the Spirit to convict our hearts concerning God’s law and what we ought to do in this life. We also need to Spirit comfort us with those comforting Gospel promises and help us devote our lives to them by faith. This we ask for in the prayer for illumination. We need the Spirit’s help. This the Spirit does for us. As the Third person of the Trinity, the Spirit is God. Paul wrote that “no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11). We could not approach a more fitting helper as we approach God’s Word.
The truth is, we need help. And, the help we need is unlike the help I need from my wife when working on the house. I might be able to frustratingly make molding fit together. But, none of us can reckon with God’s Word apart from the Spirit’s help. There is a more profound renovation that needs to occur and it is not helped by us simply muscling our way through it. Our minds need to be illuminated; we need the Spirit to shine the light of God’s word and help us understand it. But, it is not merely head games. We need the Spirit to open our hearts so that we do not just walk away with knowledge of the truth. We need that knowledge to penetrate deeply into the core of who we are as people. We need a heart renovation that the Spirit of God can bring about.