Please Pray For Me!

Have you ever been asked to pray for someone? I bet you have. Especially with all of the social media sites out there. I am sure you get at least a few prayer requests a week, if not more. It is one of the things I do really like about social media. Asking for someone to pray for you or offering to pray for someone else is a great way to spread the faith and share the faith with others. I wonder how many people have read these posts and wondered about all that support out there and wondering, if there is really something to all of it.

If you are a person people ask to pray for them, then you probably know what a powerful thing prayer is. You know how much it means to you to know people are praying and you probably know how good it feels to be able to do something for someone who is hurting or grieving or struggling in some way. But do you ever get overwhelmed with all the prayers you promised to say? Do you forget who you promised to pray for? Do you wonder if you missed someone? Do you ever agree to pray and then forget? If you do any of these, you aren’t alone. Can you imagine those in religious life who get bombarded with prayer requests? Well, I have a potential solution that works for me.

I have a small wooden box that I painted and made look special. I then painted the words, “God Box” on it. When someone asks me to pray for them, I say an immediate prayer for the person and the family and friends of the person if appropriate. Then I take a small paper and write their name on it and put it into the “God Box”. That, for me, means I am giving the person and their needs to God to take care of. Then each night, one of my prayers is always for those in the “God Box” asking God to take care of them in their time of need. I know that God knows best what everyone both wants and needs and I trust God to do what is best. If the person is sick, for example, I trust God to know what is best. If they can find healing that is great, but if they will not recover, I know God understands my prayer for comfort, an easy passing, for their soul, and their family to find peace. If it is for a job interview, I trust God to make it not work if that job isn’t what they are called to do or if a better option is coming soon. It also allows me to be sure to include everyone I promised to pray for in my prayers each night while trusting God to know what every person needs. (NOTE: Sometimes we are asked to pray for Uncle Bob, or my neighbor, etc. That is ok… I write down Uncle Bob, or Sue’s sister, etc because God knows who I mean.

After a remarkably short time, my box became rather full. I went through each paper and kept the ones that still needed prayers and discarded the ones that were for a short term issue. Then I decided that I could use colored paper for those that need my prayers long term (like my children, an aging person, or a world issue, etc) and white for the short term prayers. That made sifting through them easier when the box got full.

I really like this process because, not only did it cause me to pray for the people I promised to pray for with that first quick prayer, but it reminded me each and every night. It also helps me each night as I pray for all the things so near and dear to me that I could never forget to pray for, to remember that many have it much more difficult than I have it. That is a great lesson. And, every time I see the box, it gives me a push to say an extra prayer!

Personally, as a writer, I wrote my own prayer asking God to remember all those in my “God Box” and be there for them in the way they most need Him to be. It is a special prayer for me. You can do the same, or you can just say a short sentence, or if you wish, comment and ask and I will share my prayer with you.

Thank you all for reading. I hope this will help remind you to pray for others each day. I hope you liked this article. Please do comment and share it with others.