Gossip? Me?

“We never pray for folk we gossip about, and we never gossip about the folk for whom we pray!”  These words by Leonard Ravenhill seem to indicate that prayer and gossip can’t co-exist. Could Ravenhill be sharing a significant principle from the Lord Jesus Himself? (Matthew 5: 44, 45: But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may prove yourselves to be children of your Father who is in heaven. . . .)Are you a gossip? Here are qualities of gossips: ·      I am a gossip when I share juicy stories about someone (and in the process, grieve God the Holy Spirit).·      I am a gossip when I constantly find fault with someone and talk about these faults behind their back.·  I am a gossip when I know something confidential about a person and then go on a mission to make it known to everyone else.·      I am a gossip when I get even with someone by spreading rumors about them.·      I am a gossip when I cannot keep a secret, and say to another, “Don’t tell anyone, but. . . . . .”·   I am a gossip if I am not willing to say something in front of several witnesses about a particular person’s life or actions.·      I am a gossip when I play the game of saying, “I’m not judging them but _______. It is estimated that more churches have been destroyed by gossip than by either immorality or misuse of church funds. So prevalent is this influence in our society that some might think that this is their spiritual gift. Spiritual gift it is, from the evil spirit. This is not becoming of the followers of Jesus Christ. Pray, pray, and pray some more for those you think are fallen. That’s the way to be redemptive. Listen to Jesus again in Matthew 5: 44, 45. –Jeba Moses