Have you ever been present at church, Circle, BSU, RUF (or otherwise) when someone mentions an "Unspoken Prayer Request"? I often wonder just why they mention it if it is unspoken? I mean, really, what does this mean? Are we not brothers and sisters in Christ and able to share all that burdens us? If your answer to that is "yes, we are sisters in Christ", then why is there the need to keep requests veiled from those that can bring your specific area of difficulty before the Lord? If your answer to that question is "no, we are not sisters in Christ", then I would first pray for your unbelieving heart. Perhaps that is what is at the root of someone listing an "unspoken" request...or maybe it's too much pride??
Often during prayer list time, I've wanted to blurt out..."unspoken? then why did you bring it up if you don't want us to speak to God about it?" He tells us to pray specifically...to name it by name. I don't mean blurt out all your personal business. But it would suffice to say, "There's a decision I/a friend is making" or "There is a relationship that is in strain" or "There is a sin I am struggling with" or "I have medical tests/problems I need you to be in prayer about that I don't want to go into all the specifics about" or whatever. But just to say "Unspoken" seems to superficial and unChristian.
I just don't understand what it will take for us as brothers and sisters in Christ to break down these walls that divide us and keep us from sharing our deepest hearts (at least with one or two of our closest Christian brothers even if not the whole lot of them). I'd be interested to know what your thoughts are regarding the "unspoken".
4 comments:
Yes, we are sisters in Christ, but some sisters are weaker than others.
I am glad that you have had no struggle or misfortune that you would not be able to share. But some have.
Not all present in these circles are there to only glorify God. Some cannot keep confidences and really, why do we need to know why a sister is burdened and needs our prayer intervention.
For some just making that request is difficult enough without giving heartbreaking details. There may be reasons such as hurting someone else if you share your own prayer needs.
- I know this to be true since I recently had a mean church member walk up to me and tell me that they "heard" something about me that was all over the community. The only persons I had confided in were my closest Christian friends at church.
Now I have to deal with not only my personal struggles being gossiped about, but also, no longer feeling it is safe to confide in Christian friends.
You must make this a personal prayer and ask God to give you compassion for those carrying the weight of burdens that cannot be spoken aloud.
Chris & I were just talking about that concept. I grew up in a family that was very secretive about everything, and I tend to go the opposite direction. I'm pretty much an open book. And I also wonder why someone would say it that way, "unspoken". I've come to redefine it in my head, though. When I hear, "unspoken prayer request" I usually adjust it to "please pray for me. I have a situation to deal with between me and God and I'm not ready to share it with everyone else." I don't think it's always necessary to share every detail of something; I tend to share too much. But I do think that when you say, "unspoken" it implies some hidden horrible thing, or at least people start to imagine that.
I guess I am a lot like Tina in that I'm an open book and I HAVE to share what the Lord lays on my heart to share. As for what Debs said, we have had that discussion before at our church where there was "gossip", but we came to conclusion that it was those who were gossipping that were sinning and needed to ask forgiveness themselves. Perhaps you should ask for prayer for those gossipping about you...I mean a true and honest prayer request not a backlash. It should never stifle our need to share prayer requests with Christian friends; that, my friend, is the work of the devil. Don't allow him to do that to you or make you feel that way! Those people, too (gossipers), need prayer. I have found that those who say "unspoken" really want people to come up in confidentiality and ask what it is/can I help...maybe it's their way of crying out for help.
Well- Like for instance, when we were expecting; but were not willing to tell others quite yet. It was unposlen, because it was personal in a way that we did not want others to know about it until it was an established pregnancy that we knew was going to be a healthy one. We had reason to suspect that it was not healthy as we had not seen the fetus on ultrasound and Quite frankly, it was our way of "Guarding our hearts." as Proverbs says. I think of Mary treasuring up what the Angel told her in her heart. And also of Jesus when he did the miracles, asking others to not tell what happened to anyone. It is not sinful to not tell something as a prayer request.
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