In recent years I have posted serious prayer requests on social media \u2013 twice for my wife\u2019s surgeries, related to her fractured pelvis, and hip replacement, and once for my brother\u2019s multiple bypass surgery. Friends replied in large numbers, many with encouraging, and supportive comments. Some however, simply responded with the word, \u2018praying.\u201d Perhaps I\u2019m the only one who feels a bit empty when these one-word replies appear. If so, attribute it to twenty plus years of trying to teach seminary student want-to-be pastors, ministers, and missionaries how to pray effectively and how to teach others to do the same. More specific response would be better. Praying for who \u2013 me, my wife or brother, the doctors, the nurses? Praying when \u2013 now, tomorrow, next Sunday, once, ongoing? Praying for what \u2013 healing, recovery, comfort, support? Please don\u2019t misunderstand. I am appreciative and grateful for every person who took the time to read my request, and then click \u201cLike\u201d or responded with a praying hands emoji, or simply said \u201cPraying.\u201d I just wish for a bit more expression of payer support. When Paul was praying for the believers in Corinth, he added a phrase in his prayer that might be appropriate here \u2013 \u201cand this also we pray . . .\u201d (2 Corinthians 13:9). Next time you respond to a social media prayer request, how about taking a few more seconds, and make your reply specific.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In recent years I have posted serious prayer requests on social media \u2013 twice for my wife\u2019s surgeries, related to her fractured pelvis, and hip replacement, and once for my brother\u2019s multiple bypass surgery. Friends replied in large numbers, many with encouraging, and supportive comments. Some however, simply responded with the word, \u2018praying.\u201d Perhaps I\u2019m…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}