Praying MEN???????

[jwharv]

When did praying become a thing only the sisters in the church do? Now ladies please don't get upset with me and give me a chance to explain. All my life and even more recently I hear things like "We got some praying women in our church" or "we got some silver haired ladies who know how to reach God".

Recently I have noticed a lot of prayer groups that only allow members to be women. I get the feeling from some men that they are okay with letting women carry the burden of prayer. I have met pastors who are okay with letting the men in the church get by with a weak prayer life with out ever saying a word. Happy to let the women of the church do what we are all commanded to do.

Prayer is not something to be neglected no matter what gender you are. Nor is it something that should be placed on the shoulders of the ladies of the church and forgotten. I feel like our men need to pray more now then ever but sometimes I feel like we have forgotten how.

I have tried to lead a mens prayer group in the past and I must admit I think wrestling a grizzly would have been easier. Most of the time we would get 1 or 2 men to show up and they would pray for maybe 5 minutes.

I guess my question is this; When did men forget how to pray?



The man-God’s man-is made in the closet. His life and his profoundest convictions were born in his secret communion with God. The burdened and tearful agony of his spirit, his weightiest and sweetest messages were got when alone with God. Prayer makes the man; prayer makes the preacher; prayer makes the pastor.
E.M. Bounds

[berkeley]

Harvel,

My pastor (church I used to attend) always taught on the importance of prayer. Them are some prayin' men!!

[Praxeas]

When did praying become a thing only the sisters in the church do? Now ladies please don't get upset with me and give me a chance to explain. All my life and even more recently I hear things like "We got some praying women in our church" or "we got some silver haired ladies who know how to reach God".

Recently I have noticed a lot of prayer groups that only allow members to be women. I get the feeling from some men that they are okay with letting women carry the burden of prayer. I have met pastors who are okay with letting the men in the church get by with a weak prayer life with out ever saying a word. Happy to let the women of the church do what we are all commanded to do.

Prayer is not something to be neglected no matter what gender you are. Nor is it something that should be placed on the shoulders of the ladies of the church and forgotten. I feel like our men need to pray more now then ever but sometimes I feel like we have forgotten how.

I have tried to lead a mens prayer group in the past and I must admit I think wrestling a grizzly would have been easier. Most of the time we would get 1 or 2 men to show up and they would pray for maybe 5 minutes.

I guess my question is this; When did men forget how to pray?
Ditto. I lead a mens prayer group and it's impossible to get a good turn out.

[berkeley]

Ditto. I lead a mens prayer group and it's impossible to get a good turn out.

That is so sad.

[pelathais]

I think some of the problem is the way our lives are scheduled anymore. Women seem to be more able to schedule those times to get together for prayer. Men meanwhile pray for a few minutes when traffic opens up on their way to the next appointment and until they remember that they've got to concentrate on remembering a series of numbers and codes for that appointment. Or maybe that's "me" and not "men" in general.

Overall, I'd say that men tend to be more like Martha and women more like Mary. But at the end of the day everyone ends up feeling like Lazarus.

[Trouvere]

I want to know what women has the time mentioned in the above post.
Most women I know work and barely have enough hours in the day yet they pray.This is not twenty or thirty years ago.Stay at home moms are rare.

[philjones]

Perhaps it is a leadership issue. At the Moss Bluff Pentecostals our men's prayer room is always full to overflowing every service. We usually have as many or more men than we have women in our prayer rooms. I know this because the last 5 or 10 minutes of our prayer time our pastor brings both groups together for a pre-service exhortation and a joint time of prayer for a sovereign move of God in our service!

[Trouvere]

Perhaps it is a leadership issue. At the Moss Bluff Pentecostals our men's prayer room is always full to overflowing every service. We usually have as many or more men than we have women in our prayer rooms. I know this because the last 5 or 10 minutes of our prayer time our pastor brings both groups together for a pre-service exhortation and a joint time of prayer for a sovereign move of God in our service!

That is awesome Brother.The church we pastored had more men than
women in attendance most of the time.It depends on the area and your
focus I suppose.Brother S.A. is alot more spiritual than I am for sure.
I think its not so true that the women are more prayerful and more
spiritually sensitive.I know plenty of men who are.

[freeatlast]

Perhaps it is a leadership issue. At the Moss Bluff Pentecostals our men's prayer room is always full to overflowing every service. We usually have as many or more men than we have women in our prayer rooms. I know this because the last 5 or 10 minutes of our prayer time our pastor brings both groups together for a pre-service exhortation and a joint time of prayer for a sovereign move of God in our service!

We have as many men as women in mornig prayer at our church too Phil.

We went from one room that was our prayer room to two (mens and womens) prayer rooms to be less crowded.

Back in January I took out the dividing wall between the adjoining rooms and we now once again have one joint prayer room. The plus is we now have a one larger room for multi purpose use as opposed to the two smaller rooms.

But we do have some praying men in our church.

[Praxeas]

You know, it's my ideal that everyone come to church early for prayer....that everyone come to the men and women's prayer meetings...that everyone comes to every service. But it has never ever been like that as long as I can remember.

However, that does not mean they are not praying. And certainly some people have more time on their hands to pray longer and more often and to go to every prayer meeting. I know people are praying though.

[jwharv]

This perpetual hurry of business and company ruins me in soul if not in body. More solitude and earlier hours! I suspect I have been allotting habitually too little time to religious exercises, as private devotion and religious meditation, Scripture-reading, etc. Hence I am lean and cold and hard. I had better allot two hours or an hour and a half daily. I have been keeping too late hours, and hence have had but a hurried half hour in a morning to myself. Surely the experience of all good men confirms the proposition that without a due measure of private devotions the soul will grow lean. But all may be done through prayer-almighty prayer, I am ready to say-and why not? For that it is almighty is only through the gracious ordination of the God of love and truth. O then, pray, pray, pray!-William Wilberforce

[Sister Alvear]

We are blessed to have men that pray. Brother Alvear stresses that men are to be the example.

[Falla39]

We are blessed to have men that pray. Brother Alvear stresses that men are to be the example.

My dear late father, pastor, stressed prayer and reading God' Word

as a must. He taught us that you cannot live for God IF you do not

pray and read God's Word. As I grew older I remember thinking, "I

have GOT to pray and read God's Word! I have GOT to, or I can't live

for God. The importance was stressed so much that it became "carved"

in my heart. The older I got, the more I realized how true it was and is!

He would also say" The enemy will program every moment of your time,

....IF you let him". This is so true! There came a time in my life that

prayer and reading became more important than anything else. Many

times it boils down to priorities. What is important to us and what is the

MOST important things to us. I do not say these things to condemn

anyone! I speak the truth in love for I have seen these things. I have

also seen the enemy divide parents and children who were very close

and the parents got so busy "working for God" that the enemy slipped

their children right out of the church. Lost connection. The enemy does

not care how much you "work and stay busy" for God if he can just have

your children. Pharoah told Moses he could go out and worship, just leave

your women and children. Leave your cattle. Pharoah knew if he could

seperate the families he could have better control. Is it any different today!

Every man shall bear his own burden. We are responsible for what we

have "birthed". It begins in our homes. Not in the church!

How many men and women work and provide for their families and then

what little spare time they have, are constantly called to "meetings",

etc. fellowships, etc. and leave no family time. Whose minding the kids!

No wonder many have lost the joy of the Lord when they have lost

their children to the world. When we hear from Dist. Supts's wives and

missionaries tell us we are losing 80 to 85% of our children to the world,

something is very wrong. Who really is controlling our lives. If it is cost-

ing us our children, and later our grandchildren, have we really been

"working for God"! Children are His heritage and He has entrusted them

into our hands for a time! We had better awake out of our sleep, it is

later than we realize!!!! The truth of the matter IS, we don't just have

to pray, we GET to!!!:happydance:happydance:hanky:hanky

Blessings,

Falla39