Aretha -Say a little prayer for me...

Originally posted on www.myspace.com/ileanaburdine on Thursday, February 21, 2008

So here's another box for you to check. I pray. A friend of mine hosts this cool blog http://homelessinamerica.blogspot.com which brings to attention some of the issues facing the homeless and it calls on us to not only be aware but to act. In his most recent post, he's starting a weekly prayer request. Every Monday you can post people you'd like to offer prayers for and it will be presented in a weekly one hour adoration. Please do participate at http://homelessinamerica.blogspot.com/2008/02/coming-soon-monday-morning-prayer-blog_21.html.

That brings up a question for me that often runs around in my brain. How do you know when to stop praying for someone? I don't mean to be funny. I care about my friends and family. When they are experiencing trouble or sadness, I add them to my mental prayer list. When I say my prayers I say each one and try to really concentrate on each person for a bit, not just list their names. But, I find that my list of people to pray for becomes longer and longer and now it is just a laundry list. Do the prayers lose their effectiveness when they are diluted by such a long list? It seems to me that they could be. But how can I know. Maybe it's enough to just list them since God probably knows what's going on anyway and what they need. Like I need to explain things to God, right? So maybe a list isn't terrible.

But when is it okay to take people off of the list? Sure, someone gets a cold and you pray for them to be well and when they're well you're done. But, for instance, if you pray for someone grieving the death of a loved one, you can't know when the grief is healed. They could still suffer that grief 10 years from now. Do they stay on your list a week, a month, a year?

Do you begin to forget to add them to the list at the same rate they become healed? Because I start to forget to pray for people after awhile but then maybe that's okay since maybe God hear the prayer the first time. To help with the forgetting, I started writing down my list of people to pray for but it stressed me out because of this taking-people-off-of-the-list thing. I would rewrite the list every so often, adding new people with new concerns but then see that, yeah, I had forgotten to pray for so-and-so for awhile. But surely they're feeling better by now. Or are they... I suppose just in my talking and sharing with them I can know if they're doing better but still...I can't know for sure. Unless I ask, "Hey are you all better because I wanted to take your name off of my prayer list."

And what does it say to cross someone's name off?! "You and your well being are no longer important to me. Thank you. Come again." I don't want to take anyone off the list, just in case they need help. The list eventually, over time, becomes everyone I know; because everyone goes through a period where they need a little help, right? Then I have a list of everyone! Why not just say "God, please help out everyone I know." So THEN does my long list lose it's prayer effectiveness? Possibly. So I should start a new list with only the people who really need it right now...