Prayers are a material of the spiritual world created through human thoughts and verbal utterances that have impacts on the physical world AND the spiritual world. Prayer is a direct communication between a human and their spiritual “leader”. To the Christian, it is the triune God of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The content may be in thanks, in desperation, in anxiety, in frustration, in planning, in hopelessness, in protection, in anger, or in many other categories. The subject of the prayers may be of a financial nature, family, career, residential, vehicular, health, church-related, results of weather and God-released power, or simply appreciation of seeing a hummingbird, a blazing sunset, clouds that form pictures, or a fine meal prepared by someone we love.
Current forces abound trying to diminish the power of prayer and faith; and exalt meaningless compliance and conformability. When unleashed satanic forces flood our senses, they seem to overpower our strength, and exert pressure to make us crumble. God through Jesus Christ allows the Holy Spirit to be standing in a mighty way do deflect those evil intentions.
Prayer lists are made because our memories are not capable of remembering all the ones we wish to pray for. These are visible evidences of our efforts. But are all the ones with lists doing the praying? Many prayers are uttered when there is no list. Yet the Lord hears every planned and every unplanned prayer.
How can we know how many prayers are being said? Well, we don’t have to. But, be sure that the Lord does know every prayer that is lifted up by those who wish to communicate with Him!
If the amount of prayers could actually be seen, and it was represented by letters and characters of a particular language; I imagine those prayers would pile up after they were said. They would flow forth from the heart. Once they were said, the power would be invisible and results made manifest. But the remnants of the prayer communication, like words spoken out of our mouths; would fall into a pile in front of us. For instance: we prayed for safe travels of some loved ones going on vacation. The prayers were said, the vacation was over, the Lord provided the protections, and the loved one were back home. The end condition was fulfilled, but the prayers were still out there. So they just accumulated in a pile at the foot of the one(s) saying the prayer. And the evidence SHOWED that the prayer was actually done.
I wonder if we had the ability to gaze at the “prayer piles” of others that we know. Would some prayer piles be taller, filled with solid, deep content? Could we tell those from the ones who repeat “watered down” prayers that do not accumulate but form just a puddle with no height? But the ones with significant piles, whether it be from the quantity of a large number of requests, or many prayers prayed over just one subject like a wayward family member; would be observed. Then we would know for sure who was praying significantly.
But it is actually better that we CAN’T see those piles that only the Lord can see. We humans tend to put intrinsic value on comparing each other in so many ways, and prayer piles would just be another one. So the Lord keeps those prayerful petitions secret. He knows who does the intentional and purposeful praying. He also knows who spends little time with Him. He deeply wants us to spend time with Him. And worship and prayer are the vehicles to that end.
“Lord, we thought that with all modern conveniences and electronic tools, we would have so much more time to devote to important things. Yet, we find ourselves even more strapped for time. The appetite of worldly demands devours more and more time, reducing time with You, our Savior. We need to fight for time with You, Lord. We need to wrestle the (sometimes good and sometimes bad) intentions to the ground that can preoccupy our hearts and minds. We need to loosen the straps that hold all these demands in place and let them slip off, allowing us breathing room to return to worship and prayerful petitions for those around us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”