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Ramblings from the Pastor
“Prayer—Who’s Responsibility Is It?”
Early on in my career, a pastor friend said to me, “I don’t have the gift of prayer.” I was stunned and was sure that I did not hear him right. I thought he claims to be a pastor, for goodness sakes! How can he not have the gift of prayer?
He went on to tell me that he established this mantra early on in his career. Frequently he was asked to pray at every church meal and every church function. And then this also carried over into his extended family life when he was asked to pray much more regularly at family meals. All of a sudden, he was the designated human with a hotline to heaven.
I laughed at this. But not too long into my own career I started to notice the same thing. People asked me to pray in many situations simply because I was a pastor. For some reason, even subconsciously, people either think that my expressed requests to God have a better chance of being granted because I am a pastor, or they feel embarrassed to say an incorrect prayer in front of a pastor (if there is such a thing).
And so, we pass our prayer requests to the pastor, thinking that he or she will have the best chance of getting a response from God. Then we tell our friends about that prayer request, thinking that if we hand it to someone else, it is no longer our own responsibility. But how often is it that we do not actually talk to God directly ourselves? Perhaps this was what my pastor friend wanted to refute when his verbatim response to every public request for prayer is “I don’t have the gift of prayer.” Perhaps this pastor knew that if he prayed every time he was asked, he actually would take away an opportunity for someone else to communicate with Jesus. For surely God does not discriminate; God hears each of us as we pray.
That’s right! God still hears, and even answers prayer, prayers that go to and through someone else. Sometimes we need to be able to count on the prayer warriors in our lives to lift the prayers to God that we have a hard time doing on our own.
My friend may have been right: none of us may truly have the gift of prayer. But that does not mean that we need to stop communicating. We believe in a God who does have the gift of listening. God listens to those who speak, and God even hears those who don’t. Even when our prayer requests are mediated, God’s response is uninterrupted. Thanks be to the God who directly answers even our indirect prayers.
Blessings
Pastor Tom
“Prayer—Who’s Responsibility Is It?”
Early on in my career, a pastor friend said to me, “I don’t have the gift of prayer.” I was stunned and was sure that I did not hear him right. I thought he claims to be a pastor, for goodness sakes! How can he not have the gift of prayer?
He went on to tell me that he established this mantra early on in his career. Frequently he was asked to pray at every church meal and every church function. And then this also carried over into his extended family life when he was asked to pray much more regularly at family meals. All of a sudden, he was the designated human with a hotline to heaven.
I laughed at this. But not too long into my own career I started to notice the same thing. People asked me to pray in many situations simply because I was a pastor. For some reason, even subconsciously, people either think that my expressed requests to God have a better chance of being granted because I am a pastor, or they feel embarrassed to say an incorrect prayer in front of a pastor (if there is such a thing).
And so, we pass our prayer requests to the pastor, thinking that he or she will have the best chance of getting a response from God. Then we tell our friends about that prayer request, thinking that if we hand it to someone else, it is no longer our own responsibility. But how often is it that we do not actually talk to God directly ourselves? Perhaps this was what my pastor friend wanted to refute when his verbatim response to every public request for prayer is “I don’t have the gift of prayer.” Perhaps this pastor knew that if he prayed every time he was asked, he actually would take away an opportunity for someone else to communicate with Jesus. For surely God does not discriminate; God hears each of us as we pray.
That’s right! God still hears, and even answers prayer, prayers that go to and through someone else. Sometimes we need to be able to count on the prayer warriors in our lives to lift the prayers to God that we have a hard time doing on our own.
My friend may have been right: none of us may truly have the gift of prayer. But that does not mean that we need to stop communicating. We believe in a God who does have the gift of listening. God listens to those who speak, and God even hears those who don’t. Even when our prayer requests are mediated, God’s response is uninterrupted. Thanks be to the God who directly answers even our indirect prayers.
Blessings
Pastor Tom