The Power of Agreement

The power of agreement, in big or small matters, ensures all parties involved have come to terms with everything contained within a given arrangement. The “fine print,” oftentimes overlooked, carries just as much weight as the “body” of the work. Care must be taken before “signing on the dotted line.” While written documents are the norm in civil law, matters of faith involve agreement in prayer and proceed under the law of love as outlined in God’s commandments.

Gathered in Christ’s Name

Jesus makes this astounding claim in the Gospel of Matthew:

Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:19-20)

The word “anything” must be qualified for God’s sweeping promise to have meaning in our lives. The key to the passage is the term “in my name.” The two-fold sequence of discerning what falls within God’s will and then gathering in community to actuate faith and belief in Christ will indeed be honored by our Heavenly Father.

Keeping Prayer Simple

Agreement in prayer necessarily involves alignment with God’s will, who knows our needs even before we ask. We are assured that our requests will be granted according to the perfection of Divine Providence. There is no need to dot the I’s and cross the T’s in our covenantal relationship with God. We are asked to make our requests known with the assurance our prayers will be answered in the most loving way possible. Jesus gives this instruction on prayer:

When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:5-8)

Agreement and God’s Providence

The power of agreement, as it pertains to prayer, rests in the love of God and one another. There are abundant blessings that are ready to be realized but are out of reach because of the discord that exists in our hearts and in the world. In the macro view, the nations of the world are anything but united, and in the micro world there is division in our homes, neighborhoods, and even our places of worship.

Agreement will always be out of reach if God’s providence is left out of the equation. Instead of acknowledging God as our provider, we can easily fall into a “fortress mentality” by withholding what we have been given to share with others. The Parable of the Talents addresses how fear and isolation work against the synergy that can be realized through agreement and collaboration:

Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, “Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.” His master said to him in reply, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter? Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” (Matthew 25:24-30)

Let us pray for the grace to access the power of agreement in our lives through, in, and within the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity.