Ever pray for someone you’ve never met, say standing in front of you at the grocery store, will never see again, and who doesn’t even know you are praying?
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Matthew chapter 6 begins with a principle. Jesus told the disciples to avoid doing good things for the sake of human approval. He said, “don’t do acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them.” Instead, we should do our acts of righteousness “secretly,” before God alone.
One of my favorite ways to live out this principle is through what I call “secret prayers.” For me, a secret prayer is when I pray for someone I don’t know, will likely never see again, and who has no idea that I prayed for him or her.
My prayers go something like this. “God, I don’t know why this guy having his oil changed looks so tired. I have no idea what is going on in his world. Maybe he has a lot of stress at work. But, I pray that you might bless him today.”
God is pleased when we care for people we don’t even know. And, I know that God answers prayer. My secret prayers are just between God and me on behalf of someone else.
I have a theory that someday when I get to Heaven I’ll be able to check out DVD’s that document how a few of my secret prayers made a difference.
What would happen if every believer who read this post started praying 5 secret prayers a day?
Those are my “prayers in passing”. I love the idea of checking out the DVD’s about them! What a delightful idea!
I need to be careful, however, that I don’t just stand there in line, praying for them, when I could lend a hand to a frazzled mommy by making faces to distract her whiny toddler or helping a grandpa with his grocery bags while he gets his keys. I need to be prayer in action, too. Maybe I’m the answer because of someone else’s secret prayer…
Chris, I love to do secret prayers, especially when driving. Instead of getting angry at unwise drivers, I have been given a desire to pray for them. I like what Farmer’s wife said about being an answer to prayer also. I want to have the heart of Christ whereever I am. He both prayed and helped.