Praying for one another is an honor. We get to spiritually support each other. We grow with each other, and we grow in our relationship with God. We could tell powerful story after story about people praying for one another and experiencing the blessings of it, but…

Be careful when you ask others to pray for you.

It’s not so much the “when” that’s the concern but the “why.” I’ve recently been struck by the flippancy with which we can ask people to pray. Don’t get me wrong. Prayer is good. It’s communication with God, which requires and shows humility, faith, trust, and obedience.

Or, does it?

I think sometimes we ask for prayers because we think someone else’s prayers are more powerful than our own. Or, we ask for prayers because we don’t feel very confident in our prayers. The bottom line is, when we ask for prayers because of our own unwillingness to pray or immaturity in our approach to pray–instead of actually praying–there’s a problem. Sometimes we ask people to pray for us more out of reliance on or faith in them than on God. Sometimes it’s because we’re unwilling to do the difficult, humble, obedience work of prayer on our own.

There’s a difference between being unwilling and unable to pray.

But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience. In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. (Romans 8:25-26)

When we’re unable to pray, the Holy Spirit prays for us. But if we’re able to ask someone else to pray for us, we’re usually able to pray. Yes, we should still ask. Yes, we need to come together with others to pray. But coming together to pray is different than projecting our need for prayer onto others.

If you ask for prayer, ask yourself if you’re willing to pray, too. Seek and trust God, both directly and with others. Prayer honors God. Are you honoring God with your prayer requests?