"Unspoken" Requests

From the church blog:


I had this question posed to me recently: Why do we pass along unspoken prayer requests?

That's an excellent question. I think the question reveals two purposes for asking for prayer requests and announcing them publicly in the first place. First, to share information, bearing burdens together as a Christian community. Second, to prove our confidence in God's ability to answer prayer.

We Christians share some details about our prayer requests, not to gossip, but to share our lives together. Various individuals in the Body are equipped to provide comfort or encouragement in some situations and this kind of ministry can only happen with a certain amount of transparency.

But what about the "unspoken," or more properly, the unrevealed, vague, or confidential prayer requests? Without any details the fellow believers are left wondering what they're praying for, but God certainly knows. In this circumstance the believer prays depending on God's complete knowledge to fill in the gaps. I often pray in very generic terms: that God would bring wisdom and/or comfort to whomever needs it. And that Christians would be prompted by the Holy Spirit to minister where they're needed, even if no one else knows where that may be.

I also use "unspoken" prayer requests when the issue certainly needs prayer but is so explicit or salacious that public mention would be imprudent.

As such, the "unspoken" prayer request can be a great act of faith, that God can provide the help needed without depending on human determination. But the unspoken prayer request can also be misused, held up as a wall of dysfunction to keep out fellow believers and actually prevent help. It cuts both ways.