Prayer Requests

Why not? Though we may not know them, Our Lord does.

 

IMO a bigger problem is that our prayer lists are normally full of physical aliments. We spend too little time praying for spiritual things. As one person said, "we spend more time praying people out of heaven than praying them into heaven"

 

Yep...:thumbsup:

 

Our church stopped doing "formal" prayer lists some time ago for several reasons.

One of them was that when "a co-workers former in-laws next door neighbor son's roommates girlfriend's hairdressers' daughters son" was added to the list, that was often the last that was heard of the situation. The name went on the list and never came off. Rarely was there ever an update. The person got better or the person died. (Whatever the circumstances that led to the name being put on the list in the first place.)

In instances where we knew the background, TadQueasy's often comment applied. Especially, for minor aliments that normally rectify themselves in a few days. This hit home with me when a woman added her name to the prayer list because she had bumped her leg and had a bruise.

There's one more observation that led to the discontinuance. It seemed that for many this list became a "routine", a "ritual", of little importance. If inserted into the bulletin, they'd be left on the pews, scribbled on by children, etc. If placed in a stack beside the entry door, most would be left there, to be discarded after services. Only a few people would pick them up.

This last point was proved, when few questions were asked when the prayer lists disappeared.

Instead, emphasis has increased due the the lack of a "list".

At gatherings, such as Sunday School and Bible Study classes, these are opened with a request for prayer needs and opportunities to give praise. In addition to the leader preparing a list, for opening prayer, individuals are given the opportunity to prepare their own lists. This helps take it out of the realm of "ritual".

There's a further benefit from this approach. During this discussion period, often the request for prayer leads to further outreach. Such as sending cards signed by all of the group. A situation may warrant preparing and delivering hot meals, providing groceries, and/or doing lawn care for a few weeks. Outreach that may not have happened by putting John Doe's name on a list.

Just some thoughts this morn, for whatever they may be worth.

raying: