# opinions? what prayer requests are meant for the corporate meetings?



## lynnie (Jan 25, 2009)

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.


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## NaphtaliPress (Jan 25, 2009)

Prayer forum is for prayer requests. Moved to Worship forum.


lynnie said:


> 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?
> 
> ...


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## AThornquist (Jan 25, 2009)

One thing that I fight to remember is that even if a pray request seems petty to me, it probably doesn't to the person requesting prayer. Thus, I accept what are offered as prayer requests and pray for the needs, even if rather briefly.

And, I tend to feel that certain requests are more appropriate for different times. At church today we prayed for several members who were seriously ill, hurting, in need, etc. There wasn't anything that I would consider petty. However, for a Bible study some Tuesday or Wednesday night, I see nothing wrong at all praying for things that are commonly seen as less important, such as the unbelieving neighbor, a job change, etc. 

All I can say for sure is that the Lord hears our prayer, so we should never hesitate to pray for his glorification (even through asking for a random co-worker's salvation).


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## Rich Koster (Jan 25, 2009)

This may be for isolated case use, but I see some items on the local prayer list and get prompted to ask God if there is anything that he wants me to get involved in when it comes to the "broken car" or where someone may need encouraging.


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## beej6 (Jan 26, 2009)

If we are called to "pray without ceasing," then as long as what we are asked to pray is not unGodly or unBiblical, we should pray if asked. Individual conscience can of course enter into it too... I see no problem with praying for other people's needs, I pray they are praying for mine!


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## Jimmy the Greek (Jan 26, 2009)

Our local body has a time for prayer requests during the corporate meeting, supplemented by prayer in Mini-church group meetings, and in an email prayer chain.

Asking prayer for "uncle Tom's big toe" sometimes makes it into the corporate meeting to my chagrin, and more often than it should. This is likely an inherent problem if an open microphone is provided for such.

However, by and large, the more personal prayer requests for non-critical issues are usually voiced in the supplemental avenues, which I feel is appropriate. It is part of sharing our burdens with our brothers and sisters in Christ -- and as mentioned, alerts one to potential opportunity for meeting the needs of others.


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## JBaldwin (Jan 26, 2009)

Gomarus said:


> Our local body has a time for prayer requests during the corporate meeting, supplemented by prayer in Mini-church group meetings, and in an email prayer chain.
> 
> Asking prayer for "uncle Tom's big toe" sometimes makes it into the corporate meeting to my chagrin, and more often than it should. This is likely an inherent problem if an open microphone is provided for such.
> 
> However, by and large, the more personal prayer requests for non-critical issues are usually voiced in the supplemental avenues, which I feel is appropriate. It is part of sharing our burdens with our brothers and sisters in Christ -- and as mentioned, alerts one to potential opportunity for meeting the needs of others.



I agree, but I would like to add that folks who pray for Uncle Tom's big toe are most likely mentioning it for one of the following reasons, 1) they are really burdened about Uncle Tom and want prayer for him 2) they feel like they should mention something to pray for so they mention the first thing that comes to their mind 3) they are feeling burdened in general, and it's subtle way of asking for prayer for themselves. 

Though this is a relatively new idea in my mind, I am beginning to take a new approach to frivilous prayer requests and those who make them. The person probably has a real greater burden that they may not even be able to verbalize. So, I'll take the matter and the person before the Lord and trust Him to sort it out.


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## Tripel (Jan 26, 2009)

JBaldwin said:


> ...folks who pray for Uncle Tom's big toe are most likely mentioning it for one of the following reasons, 1) they are really burdened about Uncle Tom and want prayer for him 2) they feel like they should mention something to pray for so they mention the first thing that comes to their mind 3) they are feeling burdened in general, and it's subtle way of asking for prayer for themselves.



I'll add another: 4) they want attention. Sometimes a season of prayer requests turns into a competition of having the juiciest story.


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## Scottish Lass (Jan 26, 2009)

Tim sets up our Wednesday night prayer time in two sections. The time before Bible study is generally focused on missionaries (often naming a certain one each week), national/global events of the week (praise for the safe landing of the jet in the Hudson, for example), the government, etc. The time after study is geared toward the more personal requests of relief from pain, travel mercies, etc.


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