There are times when I am so overwhelmed or grieved, I cannot pray for myself. I feel like I am drowning. I want so desperately to see Jesus with his hand out above the water, but I cannot. This is when I text my prayer group.
Five years ago, when the world began to spin in new ways around us, I started this text thread with a few of my closest friends. These women didn’t even know each other previously. But we are connected in the Spirit. We wanted to keep our eyes on Jesus, so I created a text group of special women I know love Jesus. When life got to be too much, we simply texted the thread, Pray for me.
Sometimes we have the wherewithal to give a little context, if we need prayers for health, work, family, marriage, or anxiety. But sometimes it is just an SOS out there into the digital world when we cannot gain focus.
There are times when all we can do is send a little prayer emoji to let each other know we are praying. There are other times when one of us will type out the perfect prayer or Scripture verse that speaks to the moment. Within each other we feel the body of Christ in a real and tangible way. We know that someone is helping to carry this burden and heartache with us.
Sometimes we need more than a text and a prayer emoji, and we pick up the phone. I know I can ask these women to pray for me on the phone, and they will. And I will do the same for them. When we do not have words to pray, we can hear the words of our sister in Christ on the other end of the line, saying all the things in our heart, all our frustration and worry, and taking it to Jesus for us.
The prayers of these women are such a gift, but it is also a comfort to me that even if I did not have them, the Holy Spirit prays for us. As St. Paul tells us, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26–27) Even when we do not know what to pray, the Spirit prays the perfect prayer for us.
I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of this gift of prayer. The fear and anxiety it relieves are replaced with peace and sometimes even joy. I’ve been offering this to others, and when I am on the phone with a friend, and she tells me a story of her frustrations, I say, “Can I pray for you, right now? On the phone?” Not later, not on my own time, but there together. And we both feel God’s presence and peace and comfort together. We feel closer to each other and closer to our God, who can take care of it all.
What a gift.
Photo by Miguelangel Perez on Unsplash.