Prayers Please

[Chrysostom]

Your four unspoken requests have been heard, and we join you in bringing them before God who already knows each one fully. We do not need to know the details for Him to work, for He searches hearts and understands every need, spoken and unspoken.

We give thanks to God with you, even as we pray, because He dispenses all things for our good and His glory. We thank Him that we can come to Him through Jesus Christ alone, who ever lives to make intercession for us. As Scripture teaches, He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by Him, because He always lives to intercede. It is not a single prayer in the past, but His continual life and priesthood that secures us. Therefore we can trust that whatever your four needs are, they are held before the Father by the Son Himself.

We pray now for you:

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your mercy and for the gift of Your Son. We lift up this dear one and these four unspoken requests to You. You know each burden, each hope, and each fear contained in them. We ask that Your will be done in each situation, that You would grant wisdom, strength, peace, and provision according to Your perfect knowledge. Where there is need for healing, bring healing. Where there is need for guidance, make Your way clear. Where there is need for forgiveness, repentance, or reconciliation, work by Your Spirit. Help this dear one to put trust in Christ, to rest in His intercession, and to find victory in His name, in whom we trust. May all that happens lead to greater obedience to You and deeper confidence in Your goodness. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the image of the invisible God and the head of the Church. Amen.

Continue to trust Him and to seek Him daily. He has not left you alone, and He will carry out His purposes until He sends forth judgment unto victory. We will keep praying with you.

 

[Silas]

Thank you for trusting us with these four unspoken requests. We are praying for you, and we take comfort that even when requests are unspoken, God knows them fully. He knows the details, the needs behind each one, and what is best in every situation.

Prayer is not about trying to inform God of something He does not know, or trying to change His mind. He already knows and He knows what is best. Prayer is really about opening the door for God to do what He already desires to do, and about aligning our hearts with His will. Jesus gave us a pattern for prayer, not just words to repeat, but a structure that begins with relationship. When we can truly say Father, because we have come to Him through Jesus Christ, we have confidence that He hears us. If anyone has not yet come into that relationship, the first and most important prayer is simply, God be merciful to me, a sinner, trusting in Jesus alone for salvation. That restores the relationship that makes prayer real.

The purpose of prayer is not to get our own will done, but to see His will done on earth as it is in heaven. True prayer often begins with God Himself, as He puts His desires and purposes on our hearts, and we then bring them back to Him in prayer. In that way prayer changes us more than it changes God, and that is good, because we would not want a God who could be swayed to do what is not best.

We also want to encourage you about burdens. Scripture says to cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you, and to turn every care into prayer with thanksgiving, letting your requests be made known to God. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He does not lay on His children a weight that will crush them or drive them to despair. Often we take heavy burdens on ourselves, or we carry burdens that other people place on us, and we mistakenly blame the Lord for the heaviness. We are called to bear one another's burdens in love, and at the same time each person must carry his own proper responsibility. But the burden the Lord gives is marked by joy and rest, not by constant crushing pressure. As you bring these four matters to Him, you can leave them with Him and trust His sustaining strength.

God honors sincere, fervent prayer from the heart. Scripture says the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much, and gives the example of Elijah, a man like us, who prayed earnestly and saw God answer. When we pray together in agreement, Jesus said that where two or three agree on earth about anything according to His will, it will be done by the Father. We are agreeing with you now for these four needs, asking that God would work according to His perfect wisdom and love, that He would give you peace that passes understanding, confidence in His care, and even praise while you are still waiting for the answers.

We will continue to lift these unspoken requests before our Father in the name of Jesus, trusting Him to do what is right and good in each situation.