"God I want to lift up Suzy to you today. You know she is in financial trouble due to her gambling addiction that has been getting worse and worse. God I pray that her husband stays with her as I have heard he is debating getting a divorce as he cannot handle dealing with the debt and her addiction at the same time as their son who has gotten his girlfriend pregnant..."
Need I go on? Clearly this was not God's meaning when he said to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another (James 5:16)
We have all heard it and perhaps caught ourselves doing it now and again. But where do we draw the line between bringing forth a prayer request and turning it around from a time of prayer into a time of town gossip?
- God wants us to pray for one another but that doesn't mean you must explain the entire situation to him. He knows the situation better than we know ourselves and more often than not the explanation isn't in your conversation with God but rather so the others around you hear about it. You can still pray for somebody without knowing the details.
- Ask yourself if the person you are praying for heard you praying for them if they would be thankful for the prayer or upset that their whole life story is shared with everybody around them.
- Though prayer times with others is a wonderful thing, sometimes various prays can be done in your own prayer time so that you do not fall into this temptation
- Remembering that we tell others that gossiping is a sin, be very cautious that you do not fall into this as you never know who may be listening to your prays at church, and you do not want to be a stumbling block for others.
On a lighter note, here's a comedian talking about this subject
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