When Others Pray FOR You

Nadia Bolz-Weber preached this last month —

Sometimes we all need others to pray for us—and not only pray on our behalf, but also in our stead.

Because the spiritual physics of it is this: when your ability to believe evaporates, it just collects above and rains back down in the prayers of others. The total amount of faith in the world is sort of like the total amount of water on the planet: there is the same amount there has always been. If Earth’s gravity wasn’t holding it all down, the oceans would have drifted off into space long ago.

Which is why I’d like to argue that John the Baptist, in his inability to muster up faith sufficient enough to overcome his circumstances in prison, was still preparing the way of the Lord. He was making the path straight for the Lord to send help. Because even the greatest among us, when isolated and suffering can became an unreliable narrator.

It’s important to notice that Jesus doesn’t shame him for his doubts, nor does Jesus spiritually bypass John’s despair by offering him some sort of positive vibes onlynonsense.

Jesus just sends messengers to tell John what they see and hear. Even John the Baptist, in his own bleak midwinter of the soul, needed the faith others.

Martin Luther called this the mutual consolation of the saints. (https://thecorners.substack.com/p/the-case-for-spiritual-pto)

— Summarizes well what a lot of us have experienced. You, too?