My brother often leads prayer at family gatherings. I have a problem with this. He drinks alcohol daily, often is intoxicated, and lives a sexually immoral life. When he says, “Let’s pray,” everyone bows their heads. My husband is always present and sometimes he does lead the prayer.\u00a0 My brother is not a member of the Lord’s church. He attends the Baptist church. He never studies and knows very little about God’s word. Are we doing wrong here?<\/p>\n\t
When we bow our heads in prayer, it is to acknowledge our submission to the Lord God. When others wish to talk with the Lord, it is best to be respectful, though we know that God said that He does not listen to the prayers of sinners (Isaiah 59:1-2; Proverbs 28:9). Thus, I often use the time to silently say my own prayer.<\/p>\n
There are times when I need to make a point that what is taking place is wrong. For instance, when a woman takes it upon herself to lead a group in prayer, in violation of I Timothy 2:12, I do not bow along with them. If asked why, I calmly state that I don’t support a mockery of God’s teachings. If not asked, I try to work the point into the conversation. Sadly, most people don’t care.<\/p>\n\t
What you said is exactly <\/b>what I do. Actually, when anyone leads prayer, I always whisper my own prayer.<\/p>\n
Thank you for your response.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: My brother often leads prayer at family gatherings. I have a problem with this. He drinks alcohol daily, often is intoxicated, and lives a sexually immoral life. When he says, “Let’s pray,” everyone bows their heads. My husband is always present and sometimes he does lead the prayer.\u00a0 My brother is not a member…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1510],"class_list":["post-54703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-prayers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56009,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-pray\/","url_meta":{"origin":54703,"position":0},"title":"Do You Pray?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bill Hall in The Bulletin of the Church of Christ at New Georgia, September 30, 2007; via The Gospel Observer, December 30, 2007 The worshiper who would pray in the assembly must do more than bow his head and close his eyes. He must pray. \"Otherwise, if you bless\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28449,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-bad-to-keep-on-praying-the-same-prayer-all-over-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":54703,"position":1},"title":"Is it bad to keep on praying the same prayer all over again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This is a question about prayer. Is it bad to keep on praying the same prayer all over again? It could be from desperation, or it can be another reason. For example, you have a problem or worry you share with the Lord and you think that you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19463,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-answer-every-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":54703,"position":2},"title":"Does God Answer Every Prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clem Thurman via Gospel Minutes; Vol. 56, No. 3; Jan. 19, 2007. Question: \"I believe that when we pray for something, in faith, God will give it to us. If we are sick, we can pray and God will heal us. He is able to do all things. 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Then when you do pray for forgiveness, you never feel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31685,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":54703,"position":4},"title":"Prayer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeff Wolverton Sentry Magazine, June 2002 Prayer involves a God-man relationship: man speaking to God. In prayer, the thoughts of man are communicated to the infinite mind of God. God is the Benefactor and man the beneficiary. Prayer is indispensable in leading man from earth to heaven. Prayer involves\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29528,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-and-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":54703,"position":5},"title":"Jesus and Prayer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeff Wolverton Sentry Magazine, December 2002 Jesus as Our Intercessor The intercession of the Holy Spirit does not set aside the intercession of Jesus Christ. \"And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}