You Are Known

I go through periods where my prayer life is stagnant. OK, that seems to be the default more often than not. And while I am in the middle of such ineffectual episodes, I find listening to other people’s prayers is annoying. We won’t go into the psychology behind such attitudes. But I noticed something today.

I don’t often pray for people I don’t know. I feel like it is fake, disingenuous, even hypocritical. I am much too self-centered and if I don’t know you, and you have no effect on my life, then I don’t pray for your situation. If I pray for Joey’s great-aunt Eliza in Alaska who is dying of cancer – well, don’t I then have to pray for everyone who has cancer? And pretty soon the prayers that come from my heart become vague and meaningless.

What I realized today is this: there are people in this world for whom no one prays. Street kids and Untouchables and orphans and widows, Wall Street bigwigs and government policy-makers and heads of state, Hollywood directors and crazy reality stars and billionaires who sit by the pool all day. When I pray for them, it comes across as vague and unhelpful, because I know nothing about the street kid and the Hollywood stars and the heads of state. I don’t know what they need today, or what overwhelming trial they are carrying.

And, I am sure, they are carrying some mighty burdens. I don’t know what they are.

But God does. God knows the burdens they carry. The book of Matthew tells us He is aware of every sparrow that falls, and He dresses the grass in lilies, and He cares for us. “Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.”

More than that, though, God knows their names! I don’t know the name of a single Untouchable, and I only know stars and bigwigs because they’re in the news. I’m sure there are many more in those categories I don’t know, and knowing their names doesn’t amount to much, anyway. God knows their deepest wants, needs, plans, and hopes. He created them. He has a plan for their lives.

“For You formed me in my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb…And in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” Psalm 139: 13 and 15. And in Jeremiah 1:5 God says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.”

I wish I could tell each and every one of them: I don’t know you, but the Creator of the universe does. He made you. He loves you. And He wants to have a relationship with you. He knows your needs and your heart’s desire. And He knows your name.

I’ll never speak to these people. But today I can pray for them.