Have you ever said you would pray for someone, then promptly forgot all about it? Most of us have been guilty of this at least once.

Great care needs to be taken, otherwise the phrase, “I’ll pray for you,” can become a subtle form of name dropping. A real one-upmanship. For what is more powerful than the name of God?

It is a serious matter to commit oneself to pray for another. Sincerity and humility best walk with us when we approach the throne of God. Then, praise and thanksgiving are in order if we believe Scripture’s promise: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us,” (I John 5:14).

Then, God in His omniscient wisdom decides what will ultimately bring forth our greater good. Then, as we see in the last phrase of that verse, God answers “according to His will.”

One of the greatest compliments a person can give is to trust us with a painful part of his or her life. In return, the gift we can give back is non-judgmental, listening, laced with a care that is felt. During this human communing, often we will be asked to pray for them and their need. It is a superb honor to be asked to pray.

After that, if we enter our “prayer closet” and secretly approach God, we know we are not acting out of any motive beyond caring deeply for this person and their need. Our helping instinct has found its “highest and best use.” And more often than not he or she will sense we are praying without our having to say “I’ll pray for you.”

Occasionally there is some action our Father wants us to take on behalf of this person. If so, He will make it known—providing we are listening . . . and not doing all the talking. Listening is our gift to others.    And, it is also a gift we can give to God.

There are times when it is encouraging to hear someone say “I am praying for you.” Said sincerely, with humility and love, the words feel right and blessed.

  1. S. Lewis wrote to his friend, Sheldon Vanauken, “It is altogether healthier to find yourself being used as the answer to someone else’s prayer.” He told of his nagging impulse to go and get an unneeded haircut, finding when he gave in to it that his barber had been steadily praying that Lewis would come by.

What joy there is in playing even the tiniest part in being the answer to another’s prayers. Filled with the Spirit of God, walking daily in His light, praying to be an instrument of His love we will frequently find ourselves in the “right place,” at the “right time” saying the “right things” to the “right people.” It will come naturally, like breathing. Not forced. Not always premeditated.

Writing has been an honor and a privilege for me. I ask for prayers that I might always maintain a foremost goal to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” as my own desire to “be good” simply doesn’t cut it.

Most of us want our efforts to serve God’s good purposes—and, we fail at points. We are humans “made of dust,” yet with threads of glory woven throughout our souls. That glory is God’s great and everlasting love, a love that finds Him ever-listening, present to our prayers.

Thanks be to God for His righteousness—His dependable presence to us, in holy perfection, for all who will trust in it. It is the free gift of God’s “divine forbearance” with which he covers “our former sin,” (a paraphrase of Romans 3:25b).

When we are persistently seeking truth by going back to the Book, we are lifted above the trials and troubles of life. We read words that speak of the eternal—and tell us who we are. For example, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

Dive into “the Book.” Persistently.  For, going “back to the Book” will reveal the mysteries of a holy God and what glories lie ahead for us. Being persistently “in the Book” can lead us into a state of transcendent living. For, we are created for transcendence.  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said it well, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”