Thursday, November 6, 2008

A follow up to yesterday's post


I totally agree with the quote I posted yesterday. Our prayers should be gritty and personal and specific. My question, as usual, has to do with the employment of this practice in our everyday lives. 

I can pray with pinpoint precision about my needs because I know them. But, how am I to pray for my brothers and sisters if I don't spend time talking with them about the personal and the gritty? I have to know the gritty needs of others before I can pray specifically for them. 

And that leads to this question: How do you get down to the gritty and personal with a people who are uncomfortable with personal? Everyone I know has "trust issues." 

What can we do to become a church that shares the personal and gritty (what I think a church was intended to be)? 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is really a tough one. I have been thinking on it for several days now...what you say is true..I love everyone in our church...but, there are only a handful I would trust with my "gritty and personal" stuff...
Like you I wish it could be different and it in all truth it should be. If you've been hurt before because you did trust your "stuff" to someone and they caused you to be hurt, it is really hard to ever trust like that again.

Cory Wayne's Brain said...

I totally understand. And, I am with you. For years, I was a self-described non-truster. I told everyone I met up front that I had trust issues and they could just get over it.

In recent years I've begun to wonder if Jesus would react the way we do being hurt. Certainly Jesus was hurt by some of those he trusted most in this world. He knew ahead of time that Peter would deny Him. Yet, He still loved Peter and trusted him with His "stuff."

I am still trying to figure out how to achieve this attitude of "I will trust you even though I know you'll hurt me." By the grace of God, I think I am making progress. Now, how do I get others to strive for the same?