Prayer in Worship – Update

Another Roller Coaster

Like everything else in my life, I suppose it shouldn’t be a shocker that even the thoughts of something like prayer in worship is tied to a roller coaster track.  Suddenly whipped around a 90 degree turn headed toward another loop in the track. 

Oh well, it’s what makes this journey in life fun, exciting, and a challenge for me.  If the roller coaster of life was as straight as the roads in the plains of Texas, what fun would that be?  I’m just glad when God designed this coaster, he made sure that we had the capability to be secure in our ride.

Loosen some of the previous ends

In my previous post I suppose I went on a bit of a tirade about my opinions on what should and shouldn’t be prayed during a worship service.   Maybe to you it didn’t sound as bad as it sounds in my head as I have thought about it.  Either way, I’m going to take a bit of a step back, breathe, and see if I can make this make a bit more sense. 

Hey, I’m even open to your opinions on this as well.  I’m in no way perfect.  Worship, I think, is something personal and maybe what I want during a worship service is totally not what you want.  Granted, it’s not really about us anyway.  I understand that.

The world

I suppose I’ve finally concluded this; what better time to pray for the world than when the body is assembled together?  What better time to pray for our government when the followers of the one true leader, God, is assembled together?  What better time to pray for economics than when the richest of us are gathered together? 

I think maybe my issue was if a subject could be tied to a prayer and that subject could be deduced to “the world” then that is where I start wondering if that’s the type of prayer that I want to be praying during worship.

After all,  it’s the world that we so need to reach don’t you think?

politics

I’m still not a big fan of bringing politics into prayer during worship.  I think you know what I mean when I say politics.  Each family is composed of Republicans, Democrats, and everything in between.  Sure, we don’t want it to be that way.  We would rather just be Christians or at the very least Americans and leave the rest of the labels out of the church, but it’s not going to happen, in my opinion.

So, it stands to reason that when I am called to lead a prayer and if I start praying for political issues then most likely half of those in the family are not going to be agreeing with what I’m praying for, start getting aggravated, smirking, and completely missing the point of what we are doing at that very moment…praying.  Make sense?

So, if I had my choice when it comes to politics and public prayer in worship, leave it very generic. 

the family

I still think when we are gathered together in worship, this is the time to be praying for us as a body of believers.  For those we know are struggling.  For those we don’t know are struggling.  For the shepherds as well as for the sheep of the flock.  This is the time for praying for the service that we have entered in and for those leading the service.

Conclusion

I’m expecting some lashing or what not.  Understand though that I do understand that this is still just a matter of opinion.  As long as our hearts are where they should be, maybe it shouldn’t matter what is prayed for, I don’t know.  Maybe I’m splitting hairs and need to quit worrying about something so minor as this. 

Have an opinion?

Because of HIM

SC