Prayers you never hear prayed, but that are prayed anyway

This is a reality that all Christians can take comfort in. 

There are always times when we richly seek to be prayed for, but never know how to ask.  Other times we do ask, and people do pray for us, but we may always wonder the effectiveness of prayer when we particularly need it.  And sometimes, perhaps unconsciously, we would love to be prayed for, and there are intercessors that do.

One thing we don’t think about very often is the fact that people do pray for us when we least know about it.  I know this about my own prayer life.  God is continually bringing faces and names and needs before me; lives who have touched my life, and those particularly who are no longer part of my life.  God has me wondering about how they are going, what their challenges are, where they need to be encouraged, and so forth.

We really never know when we’re are being or have been prayed for, and we would all be surprised to discover, as only God knows, who is praying for us at any particular point in time.

Think of it this way, just as I alluded to the fact that I would pray for others at least several times a day, not always the same people, and sometimes people I have only interacted with a little, but most often it’s those people who have made a big impact in my life, and it’s not always those who have made a positive impression.

What a great thought it is that we might be prayed for without our knowledge, and that some of those prayers might even be from people we are no longer in relationship with.

This world, of course, believes that prayer isn’t a force for good at all, unless we use the word ‘prayer’ in crisis situations — like, “You’re in my thoughts and prayers.”

When Sarah and I were losing Nathanael in 2014 we often had people saying to us, “I wish I could do more than just pray.”  We understood what was being said, but at the same time it was a devaluing of the power of prayer.  People’s prayers were crucial for us when we were praying for a miracle.  We got our miracle, but it wasn’t the miracle we’d hoped for.

That aside, the power of prayer is knowing that at any point in time we could be being prayed for — people sending their wishes to God on our behalf.

Yet sometimes we also feel inadequate either in our praying, or in our for being prayed for.  I simply put this down to our wobbling humanity, in that we cannot see the divine, and we often cannot see the benefit of our praying or of those prayers prayed for us.

I know it sounds quite nebulous to imagine people are praying for us.  Quite often we discard the idea thinking that we don’t need to be prayed for.  But we really don’t know what’s around the corner, none of us do.  And sometimes we don’t know what is going on in others in terms of their relationships with us.

Prayers we never hear prayed, but that are prayed anyway, are a Godsend, literally.

Imagine the scenario often that you’re often being prayed for.  Because that’s the reality.

Photo by J W on Unsplash