Prayer without Judgement

 By: Grace Metzger

Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and

stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all saints.

Ephesians 6:18 CSB

One thing about me is I don't love attention, it's something that always made me feel uncomfortable. This is true even within the church sadly. There are many times where I feel called to reach out to others to ask them to keep me in their prayers, but my fear of their judgement overcomes me each time. This is something that I've never loved about myself and recently have been doing a lot of prayer about.

I watch TikToks of people joking about Christian's using prayer requests in order to gossip and judge others. I'm sad to admit that these terrify me. What if others judge or gossip when I reach out? What if they think what I'm asking prayer for is silly or not important? I believe a lot of other people feel the same to some extent. 

There, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you

may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.

James 5:16 CSB

I've started wondering how many people have hidden their struggles and requests out of this fear. I also couldn't help but wonder if people ever felt like that around me. I couldn't imagine being the reason someone stopped themselves from reaching out in a time of need.

So I started doing a lot of thinking on how I can avoid this, how I can create an environment that makes people feel open and comfortable enough to ask for prayer. Lots of soul searching ended up happening during this time. My sister always joked that I was a judgmental person, but did I judge people's prayers? Did I tell others what people said to me in confidence? I think this is an important thing to ask yourself often. If the answer to either of those questions are yes then it's time to start thinking about how to fix this.

The first thing I did was work on controlling my words, I put a lot of thought into my words before saying them. Did they show that I was prone to judge people or did they show that I accepted others? Next thing I did was work on controlling my words. I won't lie, I do love to gossip. This is something that the Bible tells us is a sin. These are two things I put effort and thought into everyday, they're not just something that came easy to me. 

The reason I did this is because I wanted to show people that they can come to me with their prayers without any judgements. As believers we need to be there for each other, lift each other up, and pray for one another. This is one of the most important thing to believers, to know that they have someone to lean on. So I encourage you to think about what kind of person you are showing yourself as. Become the person that others can come to!

Discussion Question: Do you struggle to reach out to others?