"I'll Pray for You"

 “I’ll Pray For You”

Ever say those words? When someone shares something about a decision to be made, a problem, an illness, or a worry over a family member, I often utter those words, “I’ll pray for you.” 

We say the words, but do we follow through? 

I think sometimes we use the words as a message of comfort. We may have every intention of praying for the person or the situation, but we walk away and forget until something else happens. 

Through the years I’ve learned enough about myself to make sure “I’ll pray for you” is not an empty promise. Here are five strategies I've found helpful.

1)     Pray then and there. If it is appropriate, take the person’s hand or put your hand on his or her shoulder and pray immediately. If it is not someone you do not know well or it might appear inappropriate to touch, you can still pray for that request immediately. Audible or inaudible…it doesn’t matter. God hears it all.

 

2)     Keep a Prayer Journal. A prayer journal need not be a fancy leather-bound journal, it can be a spiral bound notebook you picked up at the back-to-school sale at Wal-Mart. Write down the date and the request. Pray about it even as you write. And when the prayer is answered? No matter how God chose to resolve it, put that date in as well.

  

3)     Text Yourself a Message. Or send yourself an email. I have a terrible memory. I’ve sent myself an email on Sunday after church and when I open my emails on Monday, I realize I told someone I’d continue to pray over a situation and I’ve already put it out of mind. At least until I open my email. 

 

4)     File the request in an Alphabet Prayer List. For years I’ve mentally filed requests in what I call my Alphabet Prayer. I can mentally go through my list while I’m washing dishes or if I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep. (My grandmother told me if you can’t sleep, pray.) Aside from my family members, I have a few people I continue to keep in that list. Some, I’ve been praying over for better than thirty years. For more on that, I’ll share the link to an earlier post at the end I think you’ll appreciate.

 

5)     “As often as God brings this to my mind.” As I’ve noted, I learned early on that I have a terrible memory. I learned that if someone asks me for prayer, I tell them, “As often as God brings you to mind, I’ll pray.” And He does it. I’ll be in the grocery store, picking out the nicest Sweet Vidalia Onion I can find and a name or need pops into my head. I pray while I pick. I have to be careful, though. I’m at that age where other shoppers likely look over and wonder about “that poor old woman talking to the vegetables.”

There is power in prayer. I serve a living God. Not a statue or an idea. God is real. God loves me. He cares about me and my worries and concerns. He cares about people. He made us, died for us, rose up from the grave for us, and loves us beyond measure.

And...God Listens. He can see the big picture, so when my prayers don’t seem to go the way I would have chosen, I still trust He heard them and answered with what was right. Because even though I ask, like any good Father, sometimes God says, “No.”

And here is the link to the Alphabet Prayer I mentioned above. Enjoy!  https://rebeccaawaters.blogspot.com/2022/09/ready-to-party.html