Priests Before God

Dr. Clark Armstrong

Martin Luther felt strongly about the priesthood of all believers as it related to the Christian home. He believed that the parents – and particularly the father of each home – was the “priest” of that home.

Luther is the one who started the idea of the father or the parents leading their children in a time of family devotions or family worship every day. He wrote a book giving guidance for the parents as they would lead their children in the home. In the book, he gave some “Table Graces” to teach the children to give thanks by offering a prayer before they would eat any common meal (Luke 24:30). One of the most famous prayers was “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.”

I grew up in a family of six children (three boys and three girls). Our mother faithfully taught us to pray the “table graces” when we were very young. The boys would all say that prayer (above) when it was our turn and the girls prayed another one that went, “Thank you for the world so sweet. Thank for the food we eat. Thank you for the birds that sing. Thank you God for everything. Amen.” It is not so important that the prayer would rhyme although that helps the young ones to remember it. The important thing is to always stop and pray before we would eat. As soon as we were old enough, we were each encouraged to pray our own prayers from our heart when it was our turn.

Finally, Luther taught that as believers, we all are priests before God through our great high priest Jesus Christ. We can share our prayer requests with each other and pray for one another in the body of Christ. Today we have many small groups, Sunday school classes, discipleship groups, men’s or women’s ministry gatherings, or worship settings where we regularly lift one another up directly to the Lord in prayer as priests for one another. We pray prayers for healings, for the lost, for seekers, for saints, and intercession for all the problems in our world. We repeatedly have wonderful testimonies of miracles and transformation through our priestly ministry by all believers. Praise God for this truth!!!

*Dr. Clark Armstrong is a Missionary Professor at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in Manila, Philippines where he has served with his wife Connie since September 2013. Previously he served as a pastor for 32 years in the United States.