Prayer as a gossip medium

What do you think the Lord would have to say about using prayer as a gossip medium?
Have you seen prayer requests that are clearly meant as nothing more than a personal dig at someone?
Have you ever heard someone divulge far too much personal information about someone while "praying" for them?

EXAMPLE: Please be with Sister SoNSo. You know she has that drinking problem and how she's be sleeping around with all of those men and she probably doesn't even know their names. Oh! The rest of you in the prayer group didn't know that??? I'm sooooooooooo sorry.

Breaks my heart....stop. Just ...stop.

I have not personally witnessed or experienced what you describe, but it would be a serious breach of Christian principals.

LOL

Sorry but that kind of made me laugh. I see it a lot, but only online. I don't know anyone with the cojones to do that to someone's face.

I totally had that happen to me and I know the woman who did it truly didn't mean any harm and was sincerely praying. I'd told her something personal about myself that I'm struggling with...told her I'd only told the preacher and didn't want to blast it all over the church. That night she started praying with me at the altar one on one and prayed for my problem out loud...and another woman was standing behind her then joined in praying with us. WOW! That sure interrupted my prayer because all I could think was, "Shhhh.....please don't pray this out loud."

Note to self: Pray personal things, for yourself or anyone else, to yourself. God hears your prayer.

LOL! jandian, no, they didn't do it to me. I've seen people do it online and have actually witnessed it in womens prayer meetings a time or two in real life. ugh....

Kimber, I'm so sorry you were a victim of this.

It's seriously as obnoxious as someone trying to put a stop to a conversation by saying, "I will pray that God fixes your anger issues and helps you understand simple logic."

Does that kind of thing piss God off, you think?

This is not unlike the man who prayed allowed in the Synagogue, "Lord, I thank you that I am not like that sinner, since I tithe and follow all your commandments...." Jesus had some choice words for people like that, did he not?

I've seen it in churches and prayer groups. People wonder why Christians are hated. We do it to ourselves. Many prayer "requests" don't even need to be public.

Argggg, excuse me, I'm just feeling frustrated by Christiandom lately. This is one of them.

Been victim of this type of thing myself a friend who i trusted gossiped to my church housegroup that i didnt need their help that i was just using them and other people when in fact i was severely depressed and had gone through a breakdown, it was really hurtfull and as a result didnt get the support i needed from my church. Im very way of the gossip mill what goes round telling people whats going on in other peoples lives out of Godly concern when in fact its just to gossip , it does much damage..

God i will never give up on even if its sometimes hanging on by the skin of my teeth

Sometimes this may also happen without the person praying even realizing...either that gossiping is their true motivation or that what they say may be treated as such by the listeners.
I know a family of children that lost their relationship with their church when they needed it most of all....because the paster announced in prayer that their father had died of aids.

We need to test our hearts when we open our mouths...even in prayer.

I don't know if this qualifies, but I have had people pray aloud about me telling me how they think I should conduct myself while actually talking to Our Father. This was over 40 years ago, and it has not occurred since. It would have been funny had it not been they did not talk to me about what I was going to do with my life, or even if I needed to "find a job." lol God bless you all in Jesus Christ, and remember, when you are dealing with family in Christ, it is permitted to talk to them directly, then you can pray aloud about it if you still deem it necessary............

AMEN GloryBe!

Wow I'd never heard of this before. Its hard to believe that people can be that insensitive or careless. This reminds me of the privacy law in the healthcare industry which says you can't discuss or disclose any patient's personal or medical information without their written consent. That same respect for privacy should certainly apply to prayer requests.

I hear it a lot in the prayer room. People come in for prayers but are asked "tell us more about it". I really discourage it because I don't need to know why you need prayer if the Holy Spirit withing is aware.

AMEN!!!!!!!!