Monday, January 19, 2004
WHAT WE PRAY ABOUT VERSUS WHAT SHOULD WE PRAY ABOUT
My previous Blog addressed the issue of prayer meetings being glorified gossip sessions.
I am also concerned about the issues brought up for prayer. Throughout the years of my association with Christian prayer groups, the preponderance of requests are for physical matters: Healing from cancer, heart disease, surgeries of various types, on and on the list goes. But it is almost always regarding physical matters.
I keep remembering what Jesus said: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
Why do we place so much emphasis in our prayer requests on the physical and ignore the spiritual?
Seldom have I heard a request or a prayer regarding someone’s need for employment. Rarely does someone ask for prayer to deal with a difficult co-worker or family member. It is not often that someone requests prayer for a marriage that is in serious difficulty or actually breaking up. It happens, but not often.
To my recollection I have never heard someone request prayer or actually pray for someone who is really messing up his/her life by persistent sin. No one prays for someone who is sinking deeper and deeper into the muck and mire of alcoholism or another addiction such as drugs, gambling, pornography or sexual perversion. No one requests prayer for a person committing adultery or fornication.
I’ve never heard a group be requested to pray for someone who is known to lie consistently, cheat on tests or at work. Who ever asks for prayer for someone who has unresolved hatred in his/her heart toward another. When are we ever solicited to pray for someone whose prejudice is blinding him or her and doing harm to others?
This list could be endless. You get the idea.
Why are these things never mentioned in groups for prayer? Yet we will whisper about these things to others or talk about them with others over the telephone or by email. But somehow we don’t think we should pray about them.
We have the mistaken notion that to mention these things would be invading privacy or something. I rather suspect we don’t pray about them or request our groups pray about them because we might have to do something more than pray. We might be expected to intervene in some way or confront or – HEAVEN FORBID! – actually pray with the person or persons involved. We wouldn’t want to “interfere”. Who are we kidding? We just don’t want to get involved.
Oops! This has become a rant. I’d better stop. But as I do, let me say I’m not condemning others with this Post. I can speak authoritatively because what I have written describes my attitude and behavior far too often. I suspect that I’m not alone.
Jim
Jimdewing@yahoo.com
posted by jim 10:01 PM 0 comments
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