prayer requests, services, times, etc.

[Full Quiver]

Many from a Pentecostal type background are familiar with praying collectively aloud. In other circles that is not the norm and may even be frowned upon; to each his own I suppose or maybe the latter have it right.

My question/questions have to do with corporate prayer time. Often times groups whether Pentecostal or not come together to pray. This may happen in a home, at a church service, or where ever. Sometimes a mini-prayer service is held just before the minister's sermon or after opening a normal church service.

Oftentimes a moderator will ask if anyone has any prayer requests. Usually folks either stand or raise their hands and once they are identified by the moderator then they speak their request.

I ask is this Biblical? You may say sure it is or you might ask what is the harm in such.

I know that we are to pray one for another but are we to broadcast the needs, cares, concerns, and condition of others throughout the church in the name of a prayer request?

Let me give an example.

Pretend we are all in a prayer service now and I have had my hand raised. Billy from NC has just shared with us his battle with cancer and has asked us to pray. That's fair enough because it's his personal request and he can give as much detail as he is comfortable in giving. Now the moderator recognizes me and I say "........., ............., ....., and ........." Now I have "requested prayer for someone and given details about either their health or their personal life or their spiritual condition (as I see it). Said person may or may not be in the room and may or may not be known by those that are in the room. My question is does this lean away from a prayer request and into gossip? Do you see how it could be recognized as gossip?

Billy, hopefully you won't be offended by my mentioning you, has bravely stated his request and given us some details. Details really aren't necessary though when talking to God about such things. Jesus taught us how to pray and I don't see where he said to define, describe, and illustrate to the best of your ability so that you might better convince the father to respond. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Billy or anyone else is wrong if they choose to give the details but I think maybe the details are more for us than for God.

People like detail, we need detail, and sadly with detail comes drama oftentimes and boy that takes you down a road you don't want to go. Simply put I could say God work your will in Billy's life. In a corporate setting I could say please remember Billy he has cancer. That should in itself cause such a gasp that everyone would hit their knees in fervent prayer.

What I have seen is where people will say prayer for my cousin. He's a dope addict, an armed robber, and rapes children. Well first off the raping children part will probably scare people and cause some to never pray for said individual. If I say pray for my cousin, he needs the Lord desperately then we can collectively ask God to intervene in his life and no harm is done.

Does this make sense?

Have you not ever witnessed gossip in the name of a "prayer request"?

Pastors, how do you stop such?

One more point, if your prayer request time lasts longer than your prayer time then you probably have a problem.

[oletimer]

Full Quiver:

Does this make sense?

Have you not ever witnessed gossip in the name of a "prayer request"?

Pastors, how do you stop such?

One more point, if your prayer request time lasts longer than your prayer time then you probably have a problem.

Yes it does make sence at least to me. I don't have to know the details to pray for someone. All I need to know is that there is a need and leave the details up to God. He all ready knows them. To know that Billy has cancer is I need to know to pray for him.

The early church practice it as we have many refereces to this, but the foremat we don't have. I don't see anything wrong with prayer request, but sometimes unconformable with details.

A little off base, but in the chain of thought, at testamonies services that end up being prayer request time instead of testifing to what God has all ready done for us. I've being working on this for some time and have just about go most broke from it, not all but most.

As Sargent Friday used to say on Dragnet "just the facts, just the facts".

[dolfan]

My daughter last week was talking to my wife about some people on TV news who were in trouble with the law. She asked my wife a question, and my wife responded (along with her answer to the question), "We need to pray for them."

My daughter said: "Yup. We pitch it to God and He pitches it to them."

She said that to mean "give it to God." She understands that she doesn't know those people or how to help them lead a Godly life. What she does know, though, is God wants them.

Just yesterday she told my wife that, "I don't know if I'm a Christian." She has been bringing it up a good bit lately about people going to hell and people going to heaven. We talked in detail last night at supper. We discussed sin. I asked her if she knew what it means to sin. She gave great examples of sin. Lying. Being mean. Disobeying parents. I explained to her that we've all done that, that all of us have sinned because sin is breaking God's rules, His law, and not doing the things that He wants us to do. I told her that the Bible says that whoever sins will die, and that includes her, me, Mom, everyone. I told her that the Bible says that everyone has sinned and has no way of being close to God or being like God. She looked a little puzzled. I said that only one person ever lived who did not sin: Jesus. I asked her if she remembered John 3:16. She quoted most of it. We went over it together. I explained to her that because we all have sinned, and that we all must die and we cannot get close to God or really be with Him, that God sent Jesus, that God came to Earth in Jesus, and that for all of the wrong that we had done, Jesus was crucified. She said, "Yes, He was crucified because there was a law that said 'Any person who claims to be God, even if He is God, has to be crucified'." I was right proud of that. She continued, "But, He didn't do anything wrong. He was .... you know ... Jesus."

Then, I asked her, "So, you already know that whoever is not a Christian has to stay away from God forever. And, we don't even know really what forever is like. But, it never ends. Ever. Do you want to live your life away from Him forever?" Her eyes got big (she has my wife's big eyes anyway). "No, Daddy, I don't." "Do you want to live with Him forever?" "Yyyyyessss," she said, emphatically. I smiled. "Okay, think about the times when you've told a lie or got mad at someone and didn't have a really good reason for it. Jesus says that if we love him, we will do what He says. He says to love one another. That means even if we don't really want to. And, you have to keep on doing it, every day, even when you don't want to sometimes. Are you telling me that you want to do what Jesus says?"

"Yes."

"Okay," I said. "You've heard me and Mom explain to you that Jesus lives with us, that He is truly inside us. Is that what you want? Do you want Jesus to live with you, inside you?"

"Yes."

"Alright, then, I'll tell you what the Bible says. The Bible says that if you do what Jesus said and did, then you are His follower. To follow Him means to do what He said and did. That means a whole lot of things that you don't understand right now, but I'll tell you this. Little kids all over the world, even this very day, are making up their minds that they want to follow Jesus. And, they do and they will. The Bible calls His followers Christians."

She said, "I have asked him to come into my heart, Daddy. I made up songs about it today". (My wife had heard her in her room playing alone earlier in the day and she was making up little songs, as she does, and they were about Jesus coming into her heart.)

I said, "Okay, then honey. I believe you. And, I also believe that you are His daughter just like Mommy is His daughter, and I'm one of His sons."

(I left out a part when I first typed this a minute ago:) I told her, "And, I'll tell you this. Once you are His, He will do anything and everything to keep you His. A lot of things you won't like. A lot of it none of us like. But, the point is, baby, that He has you in His hands. Sometimes you're going to do what you want to do even though you know He doesn't want you to. And, you know where He'll be?"

"Where?"

"Right with you. He's going to softly remind you that He said 'No'. He's not always going to keep you from doing it like I keep you from doing things now. You know how sometimes you get so excited in saying or doing something that you don't pay attention to me when I tell you 'No' or to quieten down? And, you know how that you can get grounded or in more serious trouble for that?"

"Yes".

"Well, there will be times when God will softly tell you 'no', and you're going to not be paying attention to Him. He's going to let you do that thing, but He's not going to keep you out of the trouble it brings you. I tell you this because I want you to know that God will never leave you, and that to follow Him, you have to do a lot of stopping and paying attention. Okay?"

"Okay, Daddy."

Then, she was through with supper and went to play before getting her bath in for the night.

I was going to share that in a separate post, but this just seemed like the place. From the day I first drove her to my sister in law's house in her car seat as an infant, I prayed to God that she'd become a Christian by age 6. Now, I know there's all kinds of opinions and understanding about the age of a child coming to Christ, what they can know and understand, age of accountability and all that. I don't care. I wanted my daughter to know and have a six-year-old's understanding, given to her by God, of her need for Him. I probably blew it in many ways with the explanations. I'm not particularly good at talking with small kids, and the fact that she has a vocabulary as good as most 13 year olds do is probably because I talk to her like she's an adult. I'm fortunate she soaks that in pretty well, I suppose. I don't know what she truly understands or not. Probably about what most 6 year olds do or can know. Mostly, though, I'm glad of two things: that Jesus suffers the little children to come to Him, and that in spite of me and my failures, she has made a step toward His beckoning her to Himself.

We've got some decisions to make quickly, but again He's at front of that, too. Specific enough? I didn't really mean to go down that trail here, but I'm gonna say it: Pray for us, please.

[deb]

Enjoyed reading your post dolfan - thanks for sharing. It's good how God uses His small children to draw his big children closer to Him. Will keep your family in my prayers.

[Pastor Bill]

Dolfan, This is great, a beautiful testimony and as for all the "age of accountability" stuff, frankly I can't find it in scripture, but I can find that God wants children to come to Him, and he accepts us in our limited understanding and allows us to grow in His grace, so why wouldn't He do the same for them? She may grow in this and hold securely onto this moment as the beginning of her walk, or she may as she grows in understanding come again to a place of repentance and "get saved" at another time and focus on that, but I think we humans focus too much on the event of initial salvation, when God sees the growth. This start will is exactly that, a start, and to the best of her understanding at this age, she is ready to walk with Him, and that's all he asks of any of us.

[Pastor Bill]

FQ,

I see what you're saying, and I've said many times that gossip is the "accepted" sin in the church, too often it's almost encouraged, and we should guard against that. At the same time, I think the intent of the heart is part of this as well. There are times I share a prayer request without much detail, or times that I go into more detail, depending on the person, the situation, and the people I'm sharing with, I don't think we should stop sharing our concerns in fear of it being gossip, but we do need to check our hearts and remember God knows the details and there are times when He's the only one that needs to.