I got to thinking after church last night. Because thinking is what I naturally do best.
We prayed for some people who needed a touch from the Lord, and I believe they received what the Lord had in store for them. It was a good night of ministry and it was wonderful to see people branching out and ministering to each other.
Two questions I have though, after observations:
1. Some people prayed for people, others stood there and cried. (This happens in church all the time.) Let me ask, what helps more, praying for someone or crying for them? If you pray for someone, you’re actually getting a hold of heaven, asking God to intervene on someone’s behalf and bless them with what they need. If you cry for someone….well, you cry. Sure you feel good afterward, but all you’ve done is cry. You haven’t done anything except show your emotions. It’s good to know someone sympathizes with you, which is usually what crying during a prayer means (correct me if I am wrong). But if someone actually is praying for you, then you can have that confidence that someone is agreeing with you and offering you a hand in your Christian walk.
2. Is church full of cliques or is it one big happy family? Someone spoke last night and tried to encourage the youth that didn’t get involved in the prayer up front, telling them that even though the youth group’s prayer sessions look clique-ish, they really aren’t. This person went on to say that the youth, the leadership, etc. are there for everyone, and that they will pray when needed.
To me, a new person who is still after seven months learning the ins and outs of my church, the above stated is clearly not the case. We have people willing to pray, but they only seem to pray with those they are comfortable with. I know this. I’ve been in that position before, until only recently when the Lord moved on me to make more of an effort to get to know, pray for and mentor those that no one really pays any attention to.
I’ve gone up for prayer many times and I can only remember one time over the past seven months when someone has come up to me and really got in touch, asking me what I needed from the Lord and how they can pray for me. Other times, I get the occasional hand on my shoulder with someone praying “Bless him, Lord,” and other times I go up there and am left to fend for myself when I could use a steadying hand to help pray for me. I’ve gotten up and seen the same groups praying for each other all the time, and wondering why myself and others who need prayer are being “left in the dust,” so to speak. I’m not being selfish, I’m just offering perspective.
I was talking to our youth leader last night about this very subject. No amount of pleading, without the Holy Spirit on your side, is going to get people to come to the altar. This is why we see people still stay back in the pews and talk, disrupt, etc. Some people don’t come to the altar because they’re not comfortable. Gee, that’s a familiar rhetoric. People not stepping out because they’re stuck in their comfort zones.
I can expect someone who sits back in church all the time and never gets involved much, to not step out of their comfort zone. That’s when we as dedicated Christians and ministers of the Gospel need to step out of OUR comfort zone and reach them. Someone who has been seriously injured often times can’t drive himself or herself to the hospital. That’s where medical personnel come in–they drive the ambulance, get the person to the hospital, and operate on them so they may be made whole. The same goes with our churches. You can’t expect someone to go to the altar unless the Spirit draws them. That’s where we become the medical personnel and go out and reach out to them, and help them where they are at.
If we don’t do the above….how can we expect to go into the community and reach people for Christ if we can’t even do it in our own churches?
We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re getting there. It all comes with spiritual maturity and we’re seeing people come pretty far. Let’s not stop now.
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