When You Can’t Share Your Prayer Requests

Win books! This month, as we celebrate the one-year-birthday of From Recovery to Restoration: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in Crisis, I’m giving away four books each week. See above for this week’s books. Enter for a chance to win. To have more chances to win, share about the book more often or share the excerpts on the blog and let me know how many times you shared. 

Today’s blog is an excerpt from the devotional. I’ll be sharing excerpts every week. You can continue to share and have chances to win different books each week. 

Unspoken

For we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:26

When our son was diagnosed with a brain tumor, I readily shared prayer requests for our many needs. Even as I shared, it occurred to me that many people do not ask for prayer because their crisis seems too painful or private to share. Maybe their daughter was harming herself, or their son was addicted to drugs, or their husband’s business was failing. 

If you struggle to find a voice or a place to share your prayer requests, whether because of sorrow or shame or shock, take heart. The good news of the gospel is that your Father knows your needs before you ask, the Holy Spirit and the Son are interceding for you, and God has provided trustworthy people on this earth to pray for you. Let’s consider each of these provisions in turn. 

First, Jesus, in teaching his disciples to pray simply and secretly, assured them, “your Father knows what you need even before you ask him” (Matthew 6:9). Unlike the robots Alexa or Siri, God always listens to our hearts and always understands our needs and requests, whether they’re spoken or unspoken.

Not only is the Father “attentive to our prayers” (1 Peter 5:12), he has also given us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and to join us in our “unutterable groanings” (Romans 8:26). As the Spirit groans in us, the Father translates our requests and transforms our hearts, providing for our deepest needs (Romans 8:27). 

Not only is the Holy Spirit interceding for us, Jesus himself, the great High Priest actually sits on a throne beside his Father in heaven, interceding for us. According to Hebrews 7:25: “Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf” (NLT). What we cannot speak for ourselves, Jesus speaks for us.

In addition to his ever-present attention and his Spirit and his Son’s intercession, God has given us in-the-flesh warriors, his church, to pray for us. While you may not want to share private or painful prayer requests with the whole church, you can find relief and healing in sharing your needs with one trusted friend, ministry leader, or pastor (James 5:12). The Lord has provided us community in Christ so that we don’t have to carry the burdens of crisis alone.

Dear friend, when your crisis feels too painful to share, take heart. The Father who knows all of your needs before you ask has provided a powerful army of prayer warriors to come alongside you and do battle for you. 

Prayer

Father,

You know the agony we feel when we can’t share the painful realities of our broken stories. Thank you for assuring us that your Son and your Spirit and your church groan alongside us. In Jesus’ advocating name we pray. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read Matthew 6:5-8; Romans 8:25-34; Hebrews 7:25; James 5:12.

Listen to “Arise My Soul, Arise” by Indelible Grace.

For Reflection

If you have not been able to share your prayer needs during crisis, describe what that has been like. If you have felt free to share your prayer needs, describe what that has been like.