request of a different sort

I'm radical. I like the truth and exposing it, in love of course. I like Derek Webb and I'm looking forward to his new album. He is not afraid to tell it how it is, nor am I. This is what I see in the church today. Open your mind and your heart and hear me out.

In the realm of church and fellowship with one another, we often talk about prayer request and many times sickness and surgery are the first to be offered up. By sickness we're talking about physical and by surgery I'm also referring to physical. I have a thought: what about the sickness and surgeries that aren't physical? What about the spiritual sicknesses that often plague our churches and the surgeries that you and I are put through, if we are honest, probably most daily: are we in tune to the surgery that the Lord is trying to preform?

Have we considered:

pride?

jealousy?

hate?

anger?

drunkenness?

homosexuality?

lust?

adultery?

bitterness?

doubt?

fear?

selfishness?

depression?

The list goes on and on. I'm certain you could add a few of your own, as could I if I sat here all night. When we are talking about our Spirit, aren't these all sicknesses? Why do we, as a church, tend to ignore the majority of the issues and sicknesses that Satan uses to capture us and make us sick in the Spirit? As the church, we are called to love one another, to confess to each other and to encourage and lift up one another so that we all grow closer to the Lord.

What would happen, how would the church leaders respond to a prayer request card filled out as so:

Prayer Request/Sickness: selfishness

Surgery: taking away of self

time of surgery: immediate and lifelong

Hospital: my heart

What would you do, if you were a church leader and you came across this one? What if your best friend mailed this to you and asked you to pray? How would we respond?

As a church, we are called to do these things: confess and pray for each other, and in my opinion this includes physical, mental, emotional and spiritual sickness.