…that being two of my pet peeves in the evangelical world.
When did the word share become synonymous with tell, explain, proclaim or talk about?
We share our lunch. I have some and you have some. If two people are Christians they share the same salvation, same Lord, same Spirit, same God and Father and are related to each other in Christ. (Eph 4:4-6)
But if we share the gospel with someone and they reject it and don’t receive it, is that sharing? Aren’t we really explaining the gospel or in Biblical terms proclaiming (1 Cor 9:16) the gospel? Is this to make it sound more gentle? If we tell somebody something is that sharing? Am I the only one who thinks this sounds weird?
My other one is when people use the word just at least once a sentence when praying and even when speaking in conversation (or is that when sharing with each other). Are we trying to exhibit some sort of (false) humility or unconsciously minimizing our prayers? We are able to “approach the throne of grace with boldness”. (Heb 4:16)
How do these things start and then get so widespread? And why does everybody talk like each other?
That’s my rant for the month. Just thought I’d share.
I’m not familiar with the overuse of “just” in prayer. Examples?
My pet-peeve, and its one I find myself doing sometimes, is using “Father” or “Lord” almost like an apostrophe when praying. With some people I can count the number of clauses in their prayer by counting how many times they say one or the other! Certainly there are worse things though.
Using the word “just” may be a somewhat localized thing or only in certain circles.
An exaggerated example would be “Lord I just ask that you would just help Bryan to just…”
I catch myself doing what you describe also.
You’re certainly right that there are worse things. I forgot to say that I do my best not to judge, not that there’s anything to judge really, and the people who I hear praying are absolutely sincere.
I sometimes have a low tolerance level for pet peeves and it’s more my problem than anyone else’s because it’s probably not going to go away. God will use it for character development.
“I sometimes have a low tolerance level for pet peeves and it’s more my problem than anyone else’s because it’s probably not going to go away. God will use it for character development.”
Oh boy. Amen. You hit it right on the head for me too.