ASKING FOR PRAYER [Sat, 4-12-25]

BEYOND WINTER: The Irrelevant Musings of An Old Man—ASKING FOR PRAYER [Sat, 4-12-25]

 

Recently an old friend—I’ll call him Jerry--did something that surprised me. He’s an off-the-wall kind of guy, but we’ve been so close for so long, through major life upheavals together, that I’m usually not surprised at anything Jerry does. But this one surprised me. He asked me to pray for someone.

It’s not unusual for people to ask me for prayer, especially for someone they care about, because I’m known to be a praying man. But they are people who believe in prayer. Jerry doesn’t believe in prayer, but he asked me to pray, anyway.

Jerry is a reverse believer. He was a faithful believer/church guy, until some bad stuff happened in church. It turned him around. Now, he actively dislikes the church. He doesn’t believe in God. He doesn’t believe in prayer. But, still, he asked me to pray for someone who is dear to him and is dealing with a debilitating disease.

Because that is one thing he can do as he contemplates what his friend is suffering, and he does not want to ignore any possibility of doing something for his friend.

I don’t think that I have really considered before that one of the values of intercessory prayer is asking for it. Not just the prayer, but the request for it.

We are usually so focused on whether prayer “works” for the one prayed for that we forget about the other things intercessory prayer does. There is the possibility of “working” not only for the recipient of the prayers, but for the one praying, and for the one who asks for prayers,

Prayer is a means of grace to the one prayed for. But it also a means of grace for the one praying and the one asking for prayer for others.

As far as prayer “working,” I am always reminded of what Larry Dossey, MD, says in his book, Healing Words.

Sometimes chemo doesn’t work, but we don’t give up on it. We keep using it. Sometimes surgery doesn’t work, but we don’t give up on it. We keep using it. So why, when prayer doesn’t work, should we give up on it? [1]

Asking for prayer for someone gives us something to do for them, even if we don’t “believe in prayer.” That request is something we can do. Sometimes the only thing we can do.

John Robert McFarland

1] No quote marks because I did not look this up to get the words exact.