This morning on Facebook, someone posted a prayer request.  The request was “unspoken”.

A friend of mine, who is unfamiliar with church asked what that was about and I told him that for whatever reason, the person asking for prayer does not want to divulge any further information.  My friend asked what good is it then?  I just smiled.

Isn’t it great that we serve a God who does not need us to be specific?  I find it extremely encouraging that God is so intimately familiar with us that He already knows what is going on in our lives.  Take away the idea that God is truly interested in us – he is still omniscient.  He knows everything.  Even if He were really not interested in us at all, He would still know all about our situation.  But He is interested – intimately.

My friend then asked if He already knows then why pray at all?  (I love this guy!).  To be certain we are not imparting some unknown information to God, we already covered all that.  So if we are not providing new information – why pray?  We pray for our own benefit.  Yes, we talk to God and we ask Him to do things, and we tell Him about stuff that is going on – for us.  That way we know that God is really interested in us – when He answers our prayers.  James goes so far as to suggest, that if we don’t ask, we should not expect God to act.

So, in the case of an “unspoken” prayer request, how do you pray?  I simply ask God to do His will in the life of the person/situation in question.  I thank Him that He already is in action and that His ultimate goal is to bless us.