I have wondered about this for many years. I have been to so many prayer meetings where I end up thinking that the requests are more properly an individual person's own responsibility, and we are wasting our oportunity to corporately call on God for revival in the church, for missions, for the nation, for the lost, for all sorts of broader issues.
We are to bear one another's burdens, but it also says let each bear his own load. Which is for us and what is to be shared?
I am on an email prayer chain now and I get other emails. Mostly it is the stuff like my aunt broke her arm and my neighbor is into the new age movement and my nephews car died and my kids teacher is a rotten teacher and the dog is sick.
Maybe I am hard hearted but sometimes I want to write back and say hey, YOU pray for your aunt or nephew or dog or neighbor or teacher. It isn't my burden.
Email is one thing but it gets into small groups too. I ask myself, is that what corporate prayer is supposed to be? I look at how the world is going and I think, is this what God wants when we come together?
Now in my church at our infrequent big church prayer meetings the pastor drew up a good list ahead of time to stick to- families, nation (inc. political leaders), the world (inc. missions), our church, the lost, and then some personal needs at the end when we broke up into smaller groups. And we had to stick to the category so when it was the world we prayed for Islam and the mideast and so forth, and when it was for the lost we stuck to that.
Then the next day I get another dumb ( well, dumb to me) prayer email and I just go aaaaghhh.
I often think my small group should go "bigger" but it is almost all personal needs unless I bring up something broader.
I can't tell if I am being unmerciful or not. I know I am called to intercession and try to faithfully pray as much as I can, but when I read about what is going on all over and feel so burdened for the American church (which is going off the rails doctrinally) and so many suffering Christians all over the globe, I feel like telling people to stop asking me to pray for these stupid strangers with their stupid problems when I don't even know if they are saved or not and that might be the main thing, and why don't you go pray yourself. Then I feel guilty. Jesus cares about everything but I sure don't. But I feel like people want me to do their work for them. A disciplined prayer life is work and I don't want to do their work, I have enough on my own plate.
Maybe I should get off the prayer list? I am really struggling with this lately. Maybe I should stay on it and send in a request every week about destitute foreign orphans in Romania, and Fatah Christians in Gaza getting tortured by Hamas, and Chinese brethren in prison, and for our screwed up leaders in DC?
There either has to be more to what God wants for his people in corporate prayer than what I am getting, and my hunger is legitimate, or else I need to repent.
So what are your church prayer meetings like? Boring? Good? Local? Global? What goes around on the prayer list emails? What requests should be shared as the corporate burden, and what is meant to be our own hard work?
We are starting a Sunday night service soon and my pastor wants to include 20 minutes of prayer which is wonderful. But there was some mention today of maybe getting prayer requests in the AM so I wrote him a letter begging him not to, please please please. We would fill up 20 minutes with the dog and the cars and the nephew and the coworker nobody ever heard of.
Thanks for any advice and opinions. I am genuinely feeling frustrated and lonely in the big church sense when it comes to prayer. I do pray real well with hub and one friend for many things including revival, but that's it.
We are to bear one another's burdens, but it also says let each bear his own load. Which is for us and what is to be shared?
I am on an email prayer chain now and I get other emails. Mostly it is the stuff like my aunt broke her arm and my neighbor is into the new age movement and my nephews car died and my kids teacher is a rotten teacher and the dog is sick.
Maybe I am hard hearted but sometimes I want to write back and say hey, YOU pray for your aunt or nephew or dog or neighbor or teacher. It isn't my burden.
Email is one thing but it gets into small groups too. I ask myself, is that what corporate prayer is supposed to be? I look at how the world is going and I think, is this what God wants when we come together?
Now in my church at our infrequent big church prayer meetings the pastor drew up a good list ahead of time to stick to- families, nation (inc. political leaders), the world (inc. missions), our church, the lost, and then some personal needs at the end when we broke up into smaller groups. And we had to stick to the category so when it was the world we prayed for Islam and the mideast and so forth, and when it was for the lost we stuck to that.
Then the next day I get another dumb ( well, dumb to me) prayer email and I just go aaaaghhh.
I often think my small group should go "bigger" but it is almost all personal needs unless I bring up something broader.
I can't tell if I am being unmerciful or not. I know I am called to intercession and try to faithfully pray as much as I can, but when I read about what is going on all over and feel so burdened for the American church (which is going off the rails doctrinally) and so many suffering Christians all over the globe, I feel like telling people to stop asking me to pray for these stupid strangers with their stupid problems when I don't even know if they are saved or not and that might be the main thing, and why don't you go pray yourself. Then I feel guilty. Jesus cares about everything but I sure don't. But I feel like people want me to do their work for them. A disciplined prayer life is work and I don't want to do their work, I have enough on my own plate.
Maybe I should get off the prayer list? I am really struggling with this lately. Maybe I should stay on it and send in a request every week about destitute foreign orphans in Romania, and Fatah Christians in Gaza getting tortured by Hamas, and Chinese brethren in prison, and for our screwed up leaders in DC?
There either has to be more to what God wants for his people in corporate prayer than what I am getting, and my hunger is legitimate, or else I need to repent.
So what are your church prayer meetings like? Boring? Good? Local? Global? What goes around on the prayer list emails? What requests should be shared as the corporate burden, and what is meant to be our own hard work?
We are starting a Sunday night service soon and my pastor wants to include 20 minutes of prayer which is wonderful. But there was some mention today of maybe getting prayer requests in the AM so I wrote him a letter begging him not to, please please please. We would fill up 20 minutes with the dog and the cars and the nephew and the coworker nobody ever heard of.
Thanks for any advice and opinions. I am genuinely feeling frustrated and lonely in the big church sense when it comes to prayer. I do pray real well with hub and one friend for many things including revival, but that's it.