Prayer Request

When someone asks us to pray for them, we always give assurance that we will pray.  When asked to pray, no one ever says, "No."  But, sometimes we do the unpardonable thing.  We forget.  It is not that we did not intend to pray when we said we would because in the moment we figured we would.   The truth is saying "Yes" to someone's prayer request is something we do without even thinking.  We respond not out of concern and love, but out of habit and a duty.

 

I have a friend who when asked to pray responds not by saying, "Yes" but by saying, "I will pray for you now."  Wherever he is, he prays.  Whatever he is doing, he stops and prays.  If he is in a store, or on the street, or in an office, he prays.  When asked to pray, he prays not later, but now.  He gives no regard to what is going on around him, who is watching, or what someone might think.  He just prays in the moment.

 

Maybe, just maybe, this is what people are really asking of us when they ask us to pray for them.  Maybe they are not asking for prayers in the future so much as they are asking for prayers in the present moment.  The present moment is really an important moment for the person asking for prayers for that person is seizing it, risking being vulnerable, and asking for help.  It is an act that requires faith, but also a certain amount of courage.  It is an act which says, "There is something I cannot do by myself and I am asking you to help me."  Such faith and courage surely is worthy of a response that also speaks of that same faith and that same courage.  When asked to pray, do not wait until later.  Pray in the moment.