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“I will pray for you”, What Does that Mean?

I can’t count how many people have I promised to pray for. One time I even had a notebook with a list of names that I had purposed to pray for, one by one each day. Did I ever pray for those souls? I don’t…remember…Actually no, I did not! This thing bothers my conscience so much that I have decided to bring it to the discussion table. The good question is: when we say “We will pray for you”, do we really follow up and pray or it’s something that we say for the sake of it. Having observed my own Christian habits along with those of other believers, I have discovered that the latter is true for most of us, save for a few super Christians perhaps. But why do we do this? I mean, why do we promise to pray for people while knowing very well that we are not going to do it? There are a few reasons for this bad habit. Let's talk about them…

It’s an excuse for not doing the Christian duties
There are a tonne of things that we are called to do. It’s not just a matter of meeting on a Sunday for 2 hours, sing a few songs, listen to a little sermon and it's done. Indeed, those things are necessary Christian disciplines, but only as a warm-up exercise towards impacting the outside world.  That is where we are supposed to do the real work of preaching the Gospel, actively loving people, visiting the sick and helping the needy. Yet somehow we have found an easy way to neglect these things without our consciences accusing us, all in the name of “we will pray about it.” Brethren, it’s not enough to say you will pray about it. Whether you pray or not, the truth remains that you have to do something about it. You have to be willing to fold your shirt and get your hands dirty in doing the Christian duties that our Lord has called us to do. That needy grandma doesn’t just want your prayers, but they need something out of your pocket to help alleviate the situation. Either that or we will go down to the grave as useless ‘prayer warriors’.

It’s a temporal comfort to those who need our prayers
Human nature is good at offering hope to its fellow kind. Hence I have noticed some souls – God bless them – who come to us with their difficult situations, hoping to find some sort of comfort. Unfortunately, some of us are quick to promise “I will pray for you” while in reality, very few, if any, do take the time to really pray for those people.  I believe there are many things we could have changed in people’s lives if only we had taken the time to really mention them in our prayers. When you promise something to someone, for the Lord’s sake, follow up and do it. It’s not caring for people to pretend to care for them in their presence, yet as soon as you are out of sight you forget about their earthly existence. The Biblical word for that is hypocrisy. Again I say, it’s not enough to give somebody false hope when they really need your action: to get on your knees and pray.

Sometimes we don’t find the time
There are some occasions when some of us genuinely wish to pray for others. We sincerely want to follow up on those promises, however, we just can’t find the time. We live in a fast-paced world, such that it’s hard for some believers to even pray for themselves, later on other people. That is just the reality of the situation. My only advice is: it doesn’t matter whether you have time to pray for someone or not, the fact that you promised to put them in your prayers means you just have to follow up and do it. There is no other way around it.

Conclusion: My goal with this writing was to encourage us to pray; to pray for ourselves yes, but also to include many other souls in our prayer list. May it not be just words of “I’ll pray for you” but may it be a reality of us praying. That is what it means to be a good Christian who loves his neighbour as he love himself. Blessings.

Sinothi Ncube


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