Forget Strength, Pray for Wisdom

An article by Matt    No Comments

I think we have all been in a gathering of people taking prayer requests when someone says something along the lines of “and pray that I will have the strength to resist temptation as I go about the normal pattern of my life this week.”  I cringe when I hear that.  I cringe because it always makes me feel like the person asking for that is already planning on acting on that temptation that they know is coming their way.  I cringe because in many of these situations the person is willfully exposing themselves to the temptation that they are praying for strength to withstand.  I cringe because the old school white-knuckle approach rarely works.  I cringe because many times a little bit of wisdom will save them from their agony.

This week news of a New Jersey pastor’s cracking down on Facebook broke in the papers.  The pastor is requiring church leadership, himself included, to delete their Facebook accounts.  The reason?

The Rev. Cedric Miller said 20 couples among the 1,100 members of his Living Word Christian Fellowship Church have run into marital trouble over the last six months after a spouse connected with an ex-flame over Facebook.

“I’ve been in extended counseling with couples with marital problems because of Facebook for the last year and a half,” he said. “What happens is someone from yesterday surfaces, it leads to conversations and there have been physical meet-ups. The temptation is just too great.”

Whether you agree or disagree with the new requirement, you have to respect the wisdom behind the requirement.  While I am probably not going to be shutting down my facebook account anytime soon, I appreciate the way that he is getting away from defensive prayer and headed towards proactively engaging the sin issues in the lives of his congregation.

In what other ways can we be encouraging our congregations to shift from praying for strength towards praying for and acting on wisdom?