Unspoken Prayers

I admit that I have issues with unspoken prayer requests, however I would not call it sinful.

One of the problems I have with it is that if asked to pray for something unspoken, I really can't pray for the specific request because I don't know what it is. It's possible the request is something against God's will. So the only prayer I can offer up to God is for His will to be done.

Another problem I have with it is if I don't trust someone enough to disclose my request, I really don't want their prayers anyway. I would not ask a known gossip to pray for me regardless if the request was spoken or unspoken. I would take my request to people that care for me and I could trust to keep it private.

But that's just me.

 

Ok it seems pretty obvious to me that you simply have an ax to grind around here and want others to help you to do that. I refuse to be a part of that. Have fun.

 

Here's 1 Corinthians 14:14-17.

Sorry, I think you're trying to make it say something it doesn't say.

 

Although I don't agree with freeatlast's conclusions, I do think he's having a bit of trouble communicating what an "Unspoken Request" is, and it seems like it must not be a universal practice.

It can be illustrated like this: In our church we have a prayer request sheet to inform us of the members' prayer requests. There's a section for Health in which there will be items like, "Jim is having surgery, please pray he comes through it okay." There's a section for "Salvation" which has stuff like, "Witnessed to my neighbor yesterday, please pray they come to church next week." Then there's a section called "Unspoken" that doesn't list specific requests, it just has the names of all of the people that have private needs that they feel are of a personal nature,
so you end up praying something like, "God, please be with George's unspoken request, whatever it may be."

The problem some people have with this practice is that George's request could be for his estranged wife to die of natural causes so that he can finally marry the woman he truly wants. Of course, one would have to have a pretty pessimistic view of his brethren to think this way.

 

That's just what I was thinking.

 

Freeatlast,
you called your post an article in an earlier post. Is this taken from some book or did you write it.

Readmore,
I understand what you are saying. But in my mind, even when praying for some need that is left unspoken, I imagine that most of us have the assumption of "if it is God's will". at least I do.

 

Well, I wouldn't go that far. :laugh: But sometimes people do have prayer requests that are just not right. I have read some pretty far out prayer requests on this board. There was one in particular whose wife had left him because he was abusive and he requested prayers for her to return to him even though she had not spoken to him in over a year and had no intention of reconciling. He posted multiple, multiple times, even getting angry with some who gave him good advice that contradicted what he wanted. He wanted others to pray for what he wanted and not for what was best for his wife. Now if his request had been unspoken, people may well have prayed for his request (although it was wrong) to be granted.

This type of thing is my reason for concern.

Again, this is just me and my opinion, if it's worth anything.

 

It was a question. Just wondering.

 

Deleted - duplicated post (and no, it wasn't just to get me closer to the 1000 Posts Club!

 

If so, would it not have been much clearer, and less open to misinterpretation, to call this thread "Unspoken Prayer Requests", rather than "Unspoken Prayers"?

It's no big deal, I suppose, but why the apparent reluctance to answer Tom publicly, Freeatlast? For a start, knowing whether the OP was your own, or copied from a book or magazine would help us know the context in which it was written.

 

Agreed, but where the article appeared originally could affect our understanding of the content. For instance, if a Quaker periodical included an article on "unspoken prayer", it would probably be coming from a different point of view than if the article were in a Pentecostal magazine. (Don't read anything into my choice of example denominations - they were random). As it stands, the OP makes it seem as if you personally had written, "In today's church there has risen a practice by some that is both non biblical as well as disrespectful to the Lord."

However, as I said, it is no big deal, and if you have a reason for not telling us all where the article came from, that is entirely up to you, and I shall respect that.

 

Are we forgetting Baptist Boards rules on posting articles? Yes, it is a deal, you need to give the writer credit and post a link to the article when you post them here.

 

I hope the roof doesn't cave in...but I agree with you 100%!