Why do many Messianic congregations have a liturgy of set prayers?
Certainly one answer to this question could be “tradition”. At least one other reason is that many of the liturgy prayers date back to around the time of Yeshua and may have been prayed by the First Century believers. There are eighteen prayers of the standard liturgy (a 19th was added later) with the tradition of saying seven of the eighteen on Shabbat. One must keep in mind that many of the prayers are a collaboration of different texts of Scripture fused together to create a specific focus. It is traditional for the eighteen prayers to be recited three times a day (based on Daniel’s prayer habit) by many within mainline Judaism. Some Messianic synagogues have more or less liturgy than others depending on the preference of the individual congregation. Many books have been written in recent years that give a good explanation of the individual prayers and I would commend a study of these prayers to all who are interested. The eighteen prayers are a great place to start when wanting to
