Be joyful always;

Yeah, right!  Be joyful always.  What about this back pain I’ve got, huh? Do you know what it’s like to hurt as bad as I do for as long as I have?  Tell me to be joyful always.  Not to mention the bills I’m getting in everyday because of this.  Besides, don’t get me started on my financial issues.  Nothing to be joyful about there.  It’s impossible.  Can’t be done.  I bet anyone in my shoes couldn’t be joyful in those situations.  Be joyful always! HA!  Give me one good reason to be joyful always!

pray continually;

I can’t pray continually.  That’s too much to ask.  My life is so busy and hectic.  There is barely enough time for me to get up, get to work, get home, get my nap in, get supper fixed, watch TV, and go to bed.  I just can’t pray continually.  Oh, I do pray every now and then.  I think that’s good enough.  I’m sure God’s OK with that and understands.  Besides there isn’t really one good reason for me to pray continually.

give thanks in all circumstances,

Yeah. I’m going to be giving thanks when I’ve got some horrible disease.  Sure is something to be thankful about there.  And again nothing to be thankful for in my life right now.  With the previously mentioned back problems, financial problems, I just don’t think I can give thanks in all circumstances.  Tell me one reason why, in those hapless situations, I should be thankful.  I can’t think of one good reason!

for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Oh.

Because of HIM,

SC

1Thessalonians 5:16-18

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

I’ve had some trouble getting this post together.  I’ve thought about this subject for several weeks.  I’ve had to think about how to present it because the terminology that I use can be taken and stretched or skewed and pointed back and put to me in the form of another question.  I’m going to try to head all of that off before I get into my main point.

Worship

Let me start by showing you that word “worship.”  When I use that word in this post I am using it to mean that special time that I set aside on Sundays to pay special honor to God and to my savior Jesus, for what they have done for me.  A time where I don’t have to worry about the world and can be surrounded by my brothers and sisters who are there to hopefully do the same thing that I am.  We meet together to lift one another up, to praise God, to focus on Him and to please him as a family.

Today when someone says I’m going to worship there are all kinds of questions such as “Is that a special time or a way of life? Is that something you do or how we live?” kind of questions thrown at us and I understand where you are coming from. So I have done some quick research prior to writing this and found that worship as it’s used in the Bible, was used in a “special moment” kind of situation.  Having said that, I do also think that it is a way of life.

Prayer

No gotchas there.  Prayer is what it is.  I define it in this post as a time to hold an in depth, serious, talk with God.  Where I am still and focused and intent on listening and speaking to him.

I do pray throughout the day, several times.  I will often talk to God but I may not necessarily stop what I’m doing to have a conversation with him.  The same as I may be talking to you while fishing.  I may not stop casting the line while I’m talking to you, but I’m still having this conversation with you.  Same with God.  I’m going about my daily routine at the same time praying, having conversation, with God.  It’s part of how I build my relationship with him.

The World

The world is everything outside of the doors where we are worshipping.  It’s the thing that I finally get a reprieve from while I am at worship.  It’s the thing that I have had to be conscience of that has been berating me and tempting me and beating me down the entire week until worship time.

The Loose Ends

Let me see if I can tie these together the way that I wanted to.

In our worship services we have set aside special times of prayer.  During each of those times there is one who stands before the family to lead the prayer to keep it in some form of order.  The church in attendance doesn’t have to pray the prayer that this leader is praying and it’s sometimes a great thing this is so.

I don’t want you to think that I have no concerns for the world when these next few lines scroll across your eyes.  I do think there is a time to pray for the world, for the politicians, for the economy for all the mess that is outside of our doors, the world.  When I am worshipping though, I really don’t think that is the time that I want to pray for the world.

I really am not a big fan of the political prayers because nine times out of 10, my politics and your politics aren’t in agreement so I’m going to counter your prayer with one of my own.  I heard someone call this a prayer block, similar to a shot block in basketball.

I think when we are gathered together as a family in worship that our prayers need to be for our family and family related.  For our hearts, our souls, our strength, our minds.  For our relationships.

For this one hour in worship, let the world take care of it’s own.

Just my opinion

Because of HIM

SC

Prayer in Worship – Update

I came home after a rotten day at work, I didn’t really have anything to take my frustrations out on so, I chose my glasses.  They were dirty.  A bit crooked and I could barely see through them.  This simple thing finally sent me over the edge.  I know, glasses right? 

I opened up my back door, walked out on the deck, took my glasses off and threw them as hard as I could out in the yard.  Satisfied that the glasses would no longer be bothering me, I turned and walked back inside, slamming the door on my way in.

I made a pot of coffee, which seems to always settle my nerves a bit.  Not making the coffee, drinking the coffee. Oh and Yeah.  Throwing the glasses didn’t really solve anything.  In fact, as I was making the coffee, I could see another problem arising.  But, I managed to get the coffee going and made my way to the living room and plopped down on the couch.

I turned on the TV to the news or something, can’t quite remember what it was and after a few minutes of relaxing, hearing the coffee gurgling in the kitchen it’s aroma wafting through the house, I started to realize what I had done.  I had basically just took $300.00 and thrown it out the door for no apparent reason and now, I had no glasses and I still had the same problems I had before.

I made my way back to the kitchen and fixed a cup of coffee.  Came back to the living room, set the coffee down on my table, turned the TV off and I knelt down at my couch.  I then started to pray.

I asked for God to please bring my glasses back in.  After about an hour of praying God never answered my prayers.  He just didn’t care enough about me to bring my glasses in.  I finally gave up and decided to go out and look for them myself.

As I went through the back door, I managed to pray to God to help me find my glasses and it wasn’t long before He answered that prayers.  He found them where I threw them.

WAIT WAIT!  No,No, No…I’m kidding!  None of that story is true at all.  But, how many similar stories have we heard?  What do you think when you hear them?  Both are a bit far fetched you think?  Is there a happy medium?  I have my opinions but I’m really more interested in yours.

I know that you will not have a relationship with God if you do not pray to Him, talk to Him.  No relationship is built without communication, so please don’t take this post to say that I don’t think God answer’s prayers.  If you get that feeling, read some of my previous posts, k. 

Please don’t hurt me

Because of HIM

SC