What to Pray For

“Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, for to You I will pray.” Psalm 5:1-2

When I went to my prayer closet one day, intending to take before the Lord the requests of the other ladies in my small group, I suddenly felt overwhelmed with the sheer number of requests among the 12 of us. I pictured each face in our circle, remembering their pleas for prayer for unsaved loved ones, healings, patience, right words, job interviews, wisdom, relationships, and generally difficult living situations. These are the requests from just a few women who regularly attend church and Bible study, who desire to live as God would have them live.

My mind went to our whole church, and the fact that every single one of us could have similar prayers to ask of God. I couldn’t imagine the immensity of hard times that could be spoken to our listening Lord. Seekers, dreamers, hopers in Christ. Doubts, questions, and suffering spoken alongside faith, waiting, and surrender. All of this in one church in Redding, CA.

How about all the other churches in our country? And all the churches in all the world? And all the prayers of people who don’t go to church—searching, reaching out, perhaps, to an unknown being we call the Father?

Every person on earth has some desperation, even if it isn’t currently evident to them. All this was on my mind when I prayed, along with the other prayers we should be praying—for those in authority, for workers to be sent into the harvest, for Israel, for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven in all situations, at all times.

Lord, is there a catch-all prayer? Can we ask, in general, for healing for all those who are sick and hurting? Can we generally pray for provision for all the poor and needy? Can we pray for strong faith for everybody? Comfort for all the grieving? Wisdom for all the questioning?

I am still overwhelmed by the needs. I don’t have answers to all of this, and I am searching it out in the Word. But I will declare this: we serve a mighty God, with all power to act, to work, to send, to comfort, to lead, to provide. I know He hears our prayers. I know He loves us and cares about all of this, for all people, everywhere at once. God hasn’t given it to me to take it on as a personal burden to bear, for many are praying alongside my own halting prayers.

And perhaps that is the point: we start where we are, today, in our prayer closets. We pray for what is closest to us, those who have asked us to pray, the needs for today. “Give us this day….” We pray for what God has specifically told us to pray in His Word, because He intends to work through our prayers. Then we trust God to place thoughts of praying for other needs into the hearts of those who are closest to those needs.

God is bigger than these thoughts I have, thankfully. As always, He will lead us into all knowledge about this and so many other things.

God, be high and lifted up in our hearts and minds and lives. Bring us understanding about prayer, for You alone are able to bring our requests to pass. Amen.