Theology Of "thoughts & Prayers"

Christian Clichés

Where God guides, God provides

If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

The greatest distance in the universe is the eighteen inches between your head and your heart.

You can’t outgive God!

We are saved by faith alone but not by a faith that is alone.

When God closes a door, He opens a window

Man meant it for evil, but God meant it for good

Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.

God said it. I believe it. That settles it.

This is a ch-ch. What’s missing? U R.”

“I’ll pray about it.”

Today’s Cliché I want to talk about is heard not only among church people, as a matter of fact, but I also hear it a lot from non-church people and that is...

When there’s a tragedy, a crisis,

Our thoughts and prayers are with all the affected people.

This past week we had several tragedies in our country. One hit close to home in Gilroy, another one in El Paso, TX, in Ohio, and since mass killings consist of 4 people or more, the one with a man with a knife killing 4 people in Garden Grove, CA (didn’t make the headlines).

One of the phrases that we hear in response to these and many other events is “our thoughts and prayers” are with you.

Usually, these words are used when either we don’t know how to respond or we are not really listening to what is truly being said. To be fair some really mean it, while others just say it because...

We don’t like awkward silence when we feel like we have to say something.

Someone shares with you something very personal, a struggle, some news that makes you uncomfortable, so we look for easy answers that have somehow worked in the past but may not necessarily fit in this situation.

“... There is ... something about the sacred that makes us uneasy. We don't like being in the dark, not knowing what to do. And so we attempt to domesticate the mystery, explain it, probe it, name and use it. "Blasphemy" is the term we use for these verbal transgressions of the sacred, these violations of the holy: taking God's name in vain, dishonoring sacred time and place, reducing God to gossip and chatter. Uncomfortable with the mystery, we try to banish it with clichés.” - Eugene Petersen

Jesus Responds To struggling disciples

Matthew 8:26 NIV

26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

How do we respond when someone shows a lack of faith?

He rebukes the problem and lets us know how to confront the problem

in this case (there are too many to cite) they were afraid because they didn’t really know who was with them.

there’s was a growing faith and Jesus let’s them know that.

But Jesus does this in the context of a relationship that he already had with these men. A relationship of trust where he could tell them the truth in love.

Do we repeat Jesus’ words or do we acknowledge that we too lack faith at times, and that it’s hard to have faith when you’re in the middle of the storm, and that you too have gone through that.

If you haven’t gone through that you will be tempted to say things that you have heard.

There’s nothing like taking a course in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE).

EVERY WORD IS SCRUTINIZED

“Why did you say that?” “How do you know that?” “Why did you respond the way you did?”

What does that mean to you?

Think of what you felt when that person said something that you didn’t know what to do?

Did you feel upset, nervous, confused, etc?

Why did you feel that way?

Why did I freeze?

Or… why did I say what I said so fast without thinking about how what I said may have been heard by the other person.

Prayer

Matthew 6:5 NIV

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

What are you praying for when you tell someone you’re going to pray for them?

when someone got shot/killed?

when a natural disaster takes life and property?

when a terrorist rams airplanes into buildings killing 3,000+

Suddenly everybody says they’ll pray for us. I say I’ll pray for them.

If you pray for comfort, how can you comfort them?

If you pray for peace, how can you bring peace to that person?