August 2, 2025
When you know others are praying for you. This is a true story of healing, hope, and the impact of faithful intercession.
When You Know Others Are Praying For You
You’ve probably heard the words. “I’m praying for you.” You’ve probably said them.
So let me ask you this:
Is there just one little second in time, a quick flash, when there’s a whisper of a doubt… the awful question, “Will that really make a difference?”
Because we’ve prayed for things that didn’t happen, right?
Which means (on this planet) sometimes it must not “work.” Because, that’s how it goes, right? It’s Earth, and sometimes things don’t work. And that’s where we live, so…
Sometimes we don’t get what we requested or needed. It’s automatic to think this way.
Like, we should change the batteries, or get the manual, or call someone more knowledgeable.
Because if we do it right, things work.
So if we “pray right” it should work. And if we don’t, it might not. That’s how it seems. Because that’s how everything else seems to go.
I’m not trying to give you ideas. I’m trying to ask if this has been a struggle for you. Because it has for me.
Praying
There’s a lot here on the blog about praying. In fact, if you really take a look, you might think that’s one of the biggest things. And you’d be exactly right.
Daily prayers, praying Scripture, methods to structure prayers, ways to pray in tiny time frames. And more.
Because there have been times when I couldn’t get above a C-minus on my spiritual report card because of a poor prayer life.
There were plenty of pivot points, times when I got it together a little better, and the journey improved.
But there was this one time, this one experience, this one moment, when I knew down to the center of myself that prayer was powerful, effective, and did (in fact) work.
I want to tell you about it, knowing that you will guess the truth: Prayers don’t always get a “yes” but they always “work.”
He Needed Others To Pray For Him
It’s a story, one I hinted at when the blog was brand new, in a topic called “Better.”
At the time, I just couldn’t release the story from my heart. (I have this whole department inside my memory that contains my edge-of-the-cliff experiences. And you know about those: You’re so afraid, so broken, so damaged and hopeless. Even way after.)
But now, with some years and some space, the story is one I can tell you.
It is about a little boy who got sick. Little boys do that, but this time there was just something different and concerning. He “took a turn for the worse.” The pediatrician examined him and recommended a trip to the hospital.
Which is always overwhelming. Out of our element, right?
Why Others Prayed For Him
You can be so impressed with the tools and knowledge that doctors have — the ability to view inside our bodies, analyze our blood, and tell us what is wrong. It’s something that almost always works.
But this time, like one of those mazes with only one path that leads to the finish line, they couldn’t quite make sense of his symptoms.
Everyone was following protocols, but it wasn’t working.
The nurses were so attentive and caring, and the doctors all had their heads together. With his belly pain, it seemed like appendicitis but wasn’t. Meanwhile his symptoms were getting worse. It was clear they were becoming more concerned.
For hours, they puzzled and tested.
And we waited. With my very first grandson , who kept asking if he could just go home and be with GrandDaddy.
At one point, a doctor shared with us an alarming direction. Our little patient’s body was beginning to show some early signs of sepsis. If you’ve ever known about sepsis, you know this news was terrifying. He was five years old.
As I leaned back hard against the wall, I watched his mother pray over his bed. I was praying in my dark corner, and we both were struggling to keep it together.
Evaluations now became much more urgent. Finally, in the wee hours of the next morning, all the symptoms and information resulted in a correct diagnosis.
It ended up being bilateral pneumonia, which was treated fast and hard. I could skip to the end of the story and tell you that spending five days in this Children’s Hospital got us all the way to cured.
But you’d miss the best part.
Others Were Praying For Him
Our prayers in that emergency room were desperate. Quiet, constant, and desperate.
My phone rang, a call from a close friend who was out of the country. Several of our friends were in Israel, on a tour of the Holy Land. She had seen a facebook request for prayer, and could see that things were serious. (Of course I couldn’t believe she was making a call from Israel.)
My friend prayed with me and for our circumstances right that minute. She called me later to check on things, and let me know something.
Following our first call, after they had boarded the bus, the entire tour group and staff joined in prayer. Prayer for this little boy most of them didn’t know, in a hospital emergency department in Atlanta, Georgia.
And there were more. Others praying for this sick little boy.
With an aggressive treatment protocol there in the hospital, our little guy was improving. In fact, he suggested that Grammye could go home and take care of his little brother so that GrandDaddy could be at the hospital with him.
(😏Which is exactly what we did.)
Mommy never left his side, even curling up with him right in that bed when they could sleep. Surrounded by monitors and IV lines, she gave her presence to him in such a tangible way. Her prayers evolved from desperation to gratitude to humility as the days went by. And finally when they came home, and it seemed like a nightmare that had passed. Everything was normal again. Except our hearts.
The scars of sadness may fade, but we remember them, don’t we?
You know it takes a while to settle after a scary experience. Time finally gets your memories and fears packed away into the correct boxes. But for a while, you review it all, right?
Over the years, there were more frightening times with grandchildren, with trials and illness, times that brought me to my knees. Those stories are almost in their boxes now, to be neatly stored away. But not quite.
But what about the outcome in this story?
When You Know Others Are Praying For You
I never want to discount the value of good medicine — I’ve spent much of my working life on the fringes of that world, and I have great respect for the world of health and understanding and cures.
I believe in those systems, but I also believe in the power of prayer. And we were deeply grateful for the prayers of others during this event. Also deeply grateful for medical treatment.
And things ended up cured.
Which could make you ask the wrong question.
Did our prayers “work?” Or was it just the medicine?
I’m not trying to make you feel bad. Not even trying to make myself feel bad. I’m telling you that most people have had to wrestle with that one. I think it’s just normal human nature to have that kind of wondering.
The answer to the question depends on the heart of the person who tells you.
A person who distrusts medical treatment might tell you it must be the prayers.
A person who trusts only medical treatment might tell you it must be the medicine.
But a person who understands the authority and power of God would tell you it doesn’t have to be either/or. It can be both/and.
Hear what I’m saying, please:
God answers our prayers — in circumstances, through circumstances, and despite circumstances.
You pray for surgeons before an operation, right? I sure do. We’ll take the operation and the prayers, thank you.
And you pray before your meal, right? In fact, you thank God for providing it even though you know the people at Burger King actually cooked it and sold it to you.
Our prayers aren’t wishes made idly.
They’re not gladness expressed casually.
They are something else entirely.
So, Where Are Prayers Answered?
Our prayers are above our circumstances. Both the sending and the responses.
Prayers are beyond what we can see. Prayers are made in the unseen universe, beyond our home and planet.
There’s no comparison to new batteries or consulting the earthly experts. It’s so much bigger than you thought.
Prayers remind us that God has planned our days and our mission and our future.
There’s an acknowledgement that our human efforts will never surpass or even approach the ability God has to provide for us.
There’s a bowing of our hearts to the one who decides outcomes.
And there’s an acceptance of the authority that God holds over each of us.
That’s where we pray. Right in our circumstances, knowing that God has power, even veto power, above everything we have here.
So buy your hamburger and bless it. Take your medicine, and ask earnestly for God’s will and favor. Pray about it all.
A lot of times.
Because our lives cycle through victories and tragedies. The story I tell you today is a victory. A time we rejoiced.
You saw that word, though. “tragedies.”
But Wait…
What if… What if God didn’t say, “Yes.”
What if you don’t have my story? Your outcome wasn’t the one you prayed for.
I saw you.
I saw you there in the hospital, one of the children who wouldn’t be going home.
I saw you at Church, the person who lost someone in an accident.
I saw you in the newspaper, and silently mourned your loss.
I saw you over coffee, as you told me your grief.
I saw you, a stranger, with a story I never heard. A person carrying an unseen burden of loss.
I saw you with my eyes, and with my heart.
And you serve the same God. You bow to the same Lord, and accept the outcome he designed.
I have submitted to those sad outcomes also. The times God said, “No.”
In my sadness, these were times when I felt betrayed by God, or even angry that I was robbed of something I begged for. I felt like my wishes should be honored.
It grieves me to remember my reactions, my distrust, and my need to control.
Because I have learned something:
God redeems every tragedy in his time. He is completely sovereign, and completely good, and completely wise.
And I am none of those things.
There is no other answer for us, only faith and trust in the Father who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our good.
Exactly What Do Our Prayers Mean?
Our prayers are the pleadings of weak children who must endure the trials of this world. They are the appeals to the Father to help us — help us get better, or help get things corrected, or help us have endurance.
Our prayers are the submission to a loving Father who has only our good in mind.
And the prayers of intercession, those prayers for others, they are offered by the members of the Church in this world, the believers and the soldiers who strive for righteousness.
Our own prayers, and the prayers of others, those are the dialogue that can occur only in the relationship we have with God. Prayers are evidence of our dependence on God, and our trust in him.
Outsiders may struggle to understand it. Believers may struggle to put prayer into practice.
But in this story, prayer was the highlight, the core of the story, the one that pulled me forcibly into something new. An undeniable awareness of my dependence on God.
What He Said About Others Praying For Him
After our lives had returned to normal, I was able to share with my grandson the prayers that were offered. I told him all about our friends who were on the trip to Israel, and about the busload of people who prayed just for him.
And here it is, what he said:
He looked at me in absolute wonder, wide-eyed. “Grammye, the Israelites prayed for me?”
To this day, I want that. I want the absolute wonder, the amazement that others would go before a Holy God with the name of my grandson, or even with my name.
It has become my touchstone, the way I keep my perspective about the importance of prayer for each other.
I want the humbling that comes, the gratitude and awe when I know someone appealed to the King for me.
And I want you to know that wonder, too.
Prayers For Others
When you know others are praying for you, or when you pray for others, you’re among the ranks of the believers, the righteous, the soldiers, the warriors.
In prayer, you’re operating in the kingdom in a powerful way. You’re acknowledging the authority and power of God, and you’re accepting your weakness and your submission to His rule.
Were You Prayed For?
Can you think of a touchstone in your own history? A time when you or another person experienced the wonder of being prayed for?
Remembering that can become a pillar of your prayer life, urging you to a deeper relationship with God.
When Christ is Praying For You
Even more astounding is the thought that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us. Christ himself makes intercession for us.
Romans 8:26-27
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:34
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
In a world where individuality is emphasized over community, we tend to see ourselves striving alone.
But we are not alone. We are in a family.
We have to make the effort to gather in worship and in prayer.
We have to acknowledge the shared faith of the Church as a body of believers serving the God who saves.
God is good, and his steadfast love endures forever.
Psalm 107 begins this way:
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble.
For a song that repeats this truth, enjoy Forever by Chris Tomlin.
You absolutely have the privilege and the responsibility to spend time each day in contact with God. To lift up your needs and the needs of others, to give them into his hand, and trust in his answer.
It will often be among the hardest things you do. Actively responding to the truth that God is so much bigger than our biggest problems.
Selah sings a song called “Unredeemed.” A waiting-for-the-Lord song that brings holy truth to our deepest places of pain.
“Life breaks and falls apartBut we know these areplaces where grace is soon to be so amazingIt may be unfulfilledIt may be unrestoredBut when anything that’s shattered is laid before the Lord, Just watch and seeIt will not be unredeemed”
When You Know About Prayer
Your own prayers, the prayers of others, a unified pursuit of our God. The fellowship of believers striving together in faith.
It’s not in vain.
When Others Like Me Are Praying For You
Thanks for being here. For being willing to think beyond the shallow, knowing there is more to discover.
You know what I wish? I wish I had never let my prayer life get all dusty and neglected. But I did. That’s why I keep talking about it. And I’m not asking you for a confession. Just asking you to read about my struggle, how I stopped being ashamed and started getting it together.
We All Struggle to “Get It Together”
Guess what? You’re never going to be exactly as “together” as everyone else. Never. It’s just not possible. You’ll be a little more together than some, and a little less together than others.
So have your journey, and own it.
I’ve recently published portions of my iPhone prayers here on the blog. And of course there’s the series to read about getting your prayer life back. If you want to download the whole series into one document, look at the e-book.
Start here, dusting off your prayer life. Just decide to take a step in that direction. Share this topic with a friend, or comment below. I’m cheering for you.
By the way, 😎
Some of the products mentioned as links on this page are affiliate links. That means a merchant may give me a tiny reward if you buy something I recommended to you. Tiny rewards like that, plus the sale of my own products, help to reduce the ongoing cost of the blog. (Or, as my husband calls it, my expensive hobby. 😉)
Find out more about that here.
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-Grammye
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