The chapter (in Pastoral Care in Hospitals by Neville A. Kirkwood--the textbook for the Rockbridge Seminary Course) on offering prayer as a part of a hospital visit was interesting. Do you do that every time? Do you only have prayer when it is requested? The end of the chapter was valuable in that you can often discern when prayer will be appreciated without being specifically asked for.
While you don't want your prayers to be particularly "canned," there are certain things that have such a wide apprpriateness, you may find yourself verbalizing things over and over again. This can be bad, but it is not necessarily bad. The example of the "blessing prayer" used by the author in almost all of his visits is an example of such a prayer that is not necessarily bad even though it is quite repetitious..
Your regular church members may expect Bible reading and prayer. The key is to exercise discernment. (Remember that God will not "upbraid" us for asking for wisdom.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment