FR7 Baptist
Active Member
Would you pray?
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The Lord Looks Down & Shakes His Head
- Thread starter HAMel
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Would you pray?
It took a long, long time for me to come to this truth. As cold as my logic can be at times, and still is, I know He cares.
"Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same size." Mark Twain
Marcia
Active Member
I am so glad that you are not the one defining what we should pray for.
Marcia
Active Member
I personally considered the attitude of this man (Deacon) to be quite callus and uncaring considering the tragic news that had just been presented.
A young mother had died leaving two young daughters; a husband; an extended family; obviously, a bad day for all.
Quite clearly, the Lord knows what He is doing but as the situation unfolded it was quite the tragedy never-the-less. Those who know the family were taken aback. Bewildered;; Didn't want to believe it.
Without skipping a beat as in military cadence, "Hup.. two.. hree.. foor.. pray for the dog before we go".
The request to pray for a dog seemed to be quite cold and uncaring considering the news. He could have just as easily have raised to ask if anyone wanted to buy a pick-up truck. Same effect. I think his timing was way off.
It may have seemed tactless and cold and uncaring but that doesn't mean it was. I'm guessing this person had already decided to make this request before the other matter was raised, so what should he do? Keep silent? I think that would be wrong.
No matter how trivial a prayer request seems to us, we should not judge it, period. No one should be made to feel they cannot make their request because it might seem trivial or cold compared to other requests.
And I agree....the timing is the issue, not the request. I respect "people" requests too much to throw in dog requests around them. I don't begrudge someone praying for their animals, but the feelings of others is very important, and the deacon was way off time in this case.
Besides, God knows what we need before we even ask, so was it necessary to present it to the entire church at that moment?
Marcia
Active Member
You and others here make me glad I'm not in your church; I would wonder every time I made a prayer request if it was too trivial after requests for people with cancer, etc.
Besides, the thread title "The Lord looks down and shakes His head" is quite presumptuous. The thread starter does not know that nor should he or others assume it.
You and several others don't thoroughly read my posts. I didn't say the request shouldn't be made, I said the TIMING was bad - and the timing WAS bad. My church is a wonderful church, so don't insult it.
I am a 3 year cancer survivor, and my church prayed for me. But if I had died, would they assume that prayer wasn't answered? Of course not, we don't know what God's plan is. But I had a hard time asking for prayer because I know of others who have much tougher situations and it took me a while to ask for prayer.
When we ask for prayer requests from our groups small or large, we (as a staff) almost always add the cavaet..."for your immediate family and friends"
People are good hearted about prayer requests and simply don't realize that they can derail the movement with stuff like this. We also got tired of having our prayer services derailed by "um...I'd like for you to prayer for my bosses second cousin's niece's husband's uncle who has xzy"
We appreciate the heart and spirit of the request, certainly. We also want to validate the time spent in prayer.
btw, I think God is too busy shaking his head at me than to worry about others
People are good hearted about prayer requests and simply don't realize that they can derail the movement with stuff like this. We also got tired of having our prayer services derailed by "um...I'd like for you to prayer for my bosses second cousin's niece's husband's uncle who has xzy"
We appreciate the heart and spirit of the request, certainly. We also want to validate the time spent in prayer.
btw, I think God is too busy shaking his head at me than to worry about others
look at a bunch of men telling God whats too trival, and condeming people for praying.
If I were sick and dying or had died and paryer was asked, I wouldn't want anyone else to think what they care about was trival to God, or that they had no business with a prayer request.
If I were sick and dying or had died and paryer was asked, I wouldn't want anyone else to think what they care about was trival to God, or that they had no business with a prayer request.
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some people make a living breeding dogs, this is their job.
Marcia
Active Member
So the timing is bad, according to you? News flash - people are not praying to you or to anyone in their church; they are praying to God. If people don't like the prayer request, so be it. Just be quiet and let God handle it. For heaven's sakes, I didn't realize there was a right timing for certain prayer requests.
Well, then that was your issue. The fact you had a hard time asking for prayer either says a lot about you or about your church. It does not mean it was valid for you to not ask the request just because you had a "hard time."
No believer is more important to God than another and so all should feel welcome to make requests.
Do you believe God cares who wins football games? I see lots of athletes praying during those...
Not for the dog.
Marcia
Active Member
I have have never encountered this as a prayer request.
I was sticking to the OP topic when I wrote my comments.
Joseph shall add
Member
God has created all the living even dogs, cats and us. God loves all his creation, even the rodden ones. The Dog is just as much in need as any when it comes to Gods mercy and grace. Maybe the family that got the dog was poor and the man knew that it was a hardship and a great lose for them. The reason we pray is not to get God involved really it is to get us out of the way most often. God knows the need and has already answered. Prayer is about us coming to know how limited we are and how dependant we are on God. When we pray we have to lay down our pride and admit how small we are in the big picture. Prayer in affect keeps us humble in the sight of God. I would conclude he may have been ask for prayer for the animal. So we judge no prayer request. We simple ask the Lord to hear the plea.
Alive in Christ
New Member
Me too. I have prayed for my dog, and God healed her up. I have prayed for other peoples pets as well.
God personally creates every animal just as He personally creates every person. He tells us He is aware of every sparrow that falles to the earth.
And God is concerned about EVERYTHING that causes our heart to ache...including when our beloved pets are sick and could die.
It is thoroughly scriptural to pray for people grieving the loss of an animal, and to pray FOR the animal.
paul wassona
New Member
Nowhere do we see in the bible to pray for animals. We do see where we are to pray for the church, etc. The discerning would hear a request made for the dog and know it was really the emotional state of the family that needed prayer. To place animals in the same catagory of needing equal mercy and grace as mankind? I think I'm beginning to see creature worship starting to surface and that worship is a link to paganism. Praying for the dog by comparison is trivial, not praying for the emotional wellbeing of the owners is uncaring. Animals and people on the same level? "I command all trees, animals, men,etc. to repent!" just doesn't sound quite right, sounds trivial.
An argument from exclusion is not proof that it is wrong to pray for animals. We aren't commanded to pray for the electricity to come on after a bad storm either, but I daresay some have prayed for that.
Granted there are more important things in life than "pets" but if something is wrong with my dog and it is bothering me then I don't think God is going to be too upset if I talk to Him about it.
And don't take the ridiculous leap from that to animal worship... Oops, I see that has already happened.
Granted there are more important things in life than "pets" but if something is wrong with my dog and it is bothering me then I don't think God is going to be too upset if I talk to Him about it.
And don't take the ridiculous leap from that to animal worship... Oops, I see that has already happened.
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