Oct

Tuesday Town Hall 1…How Do You Pray or What Do You Say?

Posted by: Sonny in Application, Prayer, Townhall Tuesday

I started reading blogs not long ago when the current economic problems started decreasing the amount of work I have. I suddenly ended up with a lot more time on my hands. I do not think that I have anything especially new or revelatory to say, but as I made part of my blog title, there are just some things I want to say.

There has not been a lot of response as far as commentary yet, but it is okay. I wish more would give a little bit of themselves to this effort to discussion and one friend suggested that I just ask a question instead of writing out a whole thought. So this is what I am going to try here. If it works I will try to do this every Tuesday.

I decided on Tuesday simply because according to my statistics there has been the most traffic so far on this day of the week. And for anyone that is reading and not commenting because the few that do, seem to be acquainted with me; I invite your thoughts also. Please feel free to state what you believe. There is a lot of diversity in the body of Christ and I think we can probably all learn something from each other. Anyone that is not tolerant of someone else or their beliefs, will have their comments removed, so go ahead, and say what you want to say.

For this first open discussion I have created a scenario and will end with a question. It is not a true scenario that I am aware of and I do not know this person. But the idea behind this is to provide an example of the many situations where the question could possibly apply. I’m sure you can fit your own scenario to the questions.

Here it is.

You and Bob go to the same church, one with about 400 attending most Sundays. You also work at the same company. You are not close but do talk in passing. Bob attends church most Sundays but is not active in any ministry although his wife is a worker in the children’s department. You teach a Sunday class for teenagers with your wife.

One of the reasons you and Bob do not talk much is because you know for a fact he is having an affair at work. You were also told to mind your own business when you tried to talk to him about it. So you have only been able to pray about the situation since that time.

Bob has just came to you though, and asked to talk. He tells you he has been told he must have surgery because he has an aneurysm. He tells you that he knows you are living right and asks if you will pray for him.

My questions are simple.

What do you do?

How do you pray?

What do you ask for?

And do you think it would be effective?

There are some things I want to get at by asking these questions. Hopefully we will get to develop thought and ideas from your responses. I do have to work, as you do, and when I do I have no access to computers. So leave your comments and answers and I will do some responding myself when I get in.

Love you all.

Tags: Blogs, Discussion, Prayer, Townhall

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 12:13 am and is filed under Application, Prayer, Townhall Tuesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 comments so far

Sabrina

What do you do?

I would pray to God and ask for any help I may need regarding this situation. I would pray for a way to let that person see what he needs to do to make his heart right with the Lord. I would pray for God to help me, help him if he came to me for help not just for prayer. Most people that want you to pray for them will talk to you about why they want you to pray for them. If he did ask for help instead of just praying I would do these things:

I would listen to him. People respond better to you if you listen to them and their problems. I would try to help him in anyway possible, as long as it does not go against my beliefs.

Depending on how responsive he is, or how he responds about what we talk about, I will tell him to go to a pastor he trusts and talk to them about his situation. The pastor should have more insight in what to say about things than I would. Most pastors are also older than me and have more knowledge in areas like this than I do.

How do you pray and What do you ask for?

If he chooses not to go to the pastor and still wants me to help him I would. If he asked what he should do about the affair, telling his wife, or praying about being healed I would tell him this:

Ask God for your forgiveness! About disobeying God, lying to your wife and any others, asking others to keep the lie about the affair if they knew, hurting your family, from the lady you were having the affair with, and anything else. I would tell him that he needs to ask all these things honestly and sincerly because God knows the true feelings in our hearts and minds.

I would then tell him to start making his life right with the Lord. Letting go of all the things that hold him back from obeying the Lord. Ask the pastor to rebaptise him in the Spirit. Start having fellowship with other Christians on a more regular basis and getting in church gatherings more.

I would tell him that asking God to heal you should come after he asks God for a “clean heart”. God listens better when we are doing for Him than when we are doing against Him.

I would tell him what James 5:13-16 says:

(13)”Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. (14) Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. (15) And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (16) Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (NKJV)

Do you think it would be effective?

I believe my prayers would be effective in what I ask for. If I asked God to help me, help him and I believe God would provide that. My faith in God is sound and when I pray I know God will help me as I need it and that I should not worry when I put something in His hands.

If I asked God to heal that person I would first want that person healed by him coming back to the Lord. I feel that life is more important then the life here on earth. Then I would ask God to heal him physically. I would pray that God listen to that persons prayers and hear him crying out to the Lord for help. That God not to harden His heart to that person.

I had a friend in a similuar situation. She had a benign brain tumor but it was growing and they could not remove it. I prayed for her soul to be saved, for her to start living right and for the Lord, and for her to become healthly again. I prayed for months. I prayed for her daughter, who was 7 at the time, to be able to get through it. I told her I was praying for all these things. She talked about suicide. I prayed about that. She got better and the brain tumor shrank. She stopped having chemo treatments. But, she did not make her life right with the Lord and is still a very unhappy person. I still pray for her and ask God to not harden His heart against her. That if she does turn back to the Lord He will listen.

We are not friends anymore and we do not really get along now. Sometimes is hard for me to want to pray for her and God has to send someone to remind I need to pray for everyone, friends and enemies alike. To love and pray for everyone if they ask, even if you disagree with their lifestyles.

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor 13:13
(NKJV)

I hope I answered close to what you were looking for. I may have gone off track and to the right a little but I believe it all ties in together at some point.

May God Bless You Always,
Sabrina

October 14th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

john

your friend already knows what you think about his affair. he’s in church so he also knows the biblical position on his cheating. so i dont think it would benefit either of you to go into that . all that you can do is what he ask–pray for his health situation. you’ve already been praying about the cheating he’s doing, so keep it up while also praying for his health. try to only show him the love that he needs at this time not judgement. if your prayer is effective or not just depends on what Gods will is for this situation. you and your friend have to remember that God looks at a much larger picture than we do. his intervention could come in something as large as a healing or as small as peace of mind. i dont think his sin would stop God from helping him. i often sin and my prayers are often answered. love this question format–whoever suggested it is definately a smart person!!!

October 14th, 2008 at 7:18 pm

Sonny

Just letting both of you know I am reading your comments. Good thoughts so far but I have some more to say. I am going to hold off for a while to let some others post, hopefully.

Love you
Sonny

October 15th, 2008 at 12:09 am

Dee Prince

God tells us to pray for one another and bear one another’s burdens. When I was told to “mind my own business” when I confronted him about wrong doing, Bob already knows God has burdened me for him. I will continue to pray for him and ask God to help me walk in love toward him. I would pray for God to give him a heart of repentance and restore his heart, relationship with God and his wife and also his home.

If he came to me as asked for prayer because of a medical condition, then maybe he would see the Jesus in me and trust me enough to know that I would pray and not stand in judgement of him. I would pray with him…right then and allow God to begin the healing process.

I would pray for his doctors, surgeons and the situation as a whole. Bob is reaching out in a time in his life that he doesn’t believe God will hear him but he trust that a friend’s prayer would be heard.

Would the prayer be effective? According to James 5:16 it certainly would be. I believe God honors the prayers of those we call him Lord. If this were not true, I would not have experienced seeing many lost people come to the Lord. The Lord has moved in many lives because of prayer.

After some time of separation and even a divorce, prayer has been the key to putting a home back together in our family.

Love and Prayers,

October 15th, 2008 at 8:38 am

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Just Pray About It? | A Sonny Disposition Oct 18 2008 / 2am:

[...] in my first attempt to stimulate discussion, I posted and posited a scenario and some questions in hope of provoking thought on prayer, its effectiveness, and to ask if it was [...]