Should I pray for a person if they’ve asked me not to?

This is not an exhaustive response to the question posed in the title, but it is my response.

How can it be right to pray for someone when they’ve asked you not to?  “Please, do NOT pray for me...” “... I don’t need your prayers...” “... I don’t want your prayers...” “... your prayers mean nothing to me...” etc.

Yet, I guarantee if you were to ask a Christian 10 years ago, and perhaps you’d get the same response now, “Would you still pray for someone who had expressly asked you not to?” I’d imagine their heart response, and therefore their action, would be, “Yes, I just wouldn’t tell them I was praying for them.”

This is a time for those prayer warriors in our midst to be honest.  Isn’t it a lack of integrity before God to intercede for a person who has expressly told us not to?  What’s the right thing to do then?

I’m saying to not pray for them, to honour what they wish from me.  If I’m to be an example of Christ to anyone I must respect their position.  I must seek to understand why they’ve reached their position, because that will help me accept their position, and I might just learn something God wants me to learn along the way.

What I’m saying is, honouring others’ wishes is vitally important.  Why would any of us get in the way of someone who has a definite spiritual position?  We’re to live and let live.

If we’re to pray about anything, perhaps we’re to seek to understand how we might relate with such a person in a way that’s of value to them; and perhaps that’s about getting out of their way.

Would it not grieve God to act deceptively?  In any way?

But here’s the thing for the Christian who’s quite devoted to prayer as part of their discipleship.

They cannot help but love everyone.  They’re committed to overcoming hurts and to the ministry of forgiveness, especially as it pertains to their relationships.  If someone seems quite definite about NOT being prayed for, the Christian will honour that wish, but the Christian may also be troubled about the distance between themselves and the person not wanting to be prayed for.  The Christian, if they’re honest, cannot help but hold this person in their mind, heart, and thoughts... and that’s prayer.  It’s not an intentional conscious prayer, but there will be a level of unconscious prayer going on because they’re concerned.

This may cause the Christian a fair bit of cognitive dissonance.  They may be troubled.  But they cannot help their unconscious thought life—and, again, that’s a form of prayer.

A person who does NOT want to be prayed for would be best advised not to mention it.

But it’s incumbent on Christians to honour the prayer wishes of all people.

What do you think?