“Hey, I’ll pray for you,” he said. In the back of my mind, I wondered if he would.

On the flip side, I emailed a friend last week and said that I’d pray for his mom who was having heart surgery. When I saw my friend a few days later, I asked him about his mom’s hip surgery. Oooops.

I’m sure you’ve been on the receiving and giving ends of insincere offers for prayer. “I’ll pray for you” is the Christian thing to say. Praying is the Christian thing to do.

Jesus is praying for you.

“Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34 NIV)

“Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” (Hebrews 7:25 NIV)

That should encourage the socks off of you. It does for me. You don’t have to worry when a friend isn’t faithful in prayer, because Jesus is faithful. He is constantly praying for you. He is praying for you right now.

What is it that you need prayer for? Jesus knows it already and he is, at this moment, at the throne of the Father praying for you.

Are you seeking God’s direction? Jesus is praying about that.

Are you in pain? Jesus is bringing that pain to his Father.

Are you looking for work? Jesus knows it and is seeking the Father on your behalf.

Are you stressed? Jesus is praying to the Father for your inner peace.

You have the Savior on your side praying to God the Father, who is also on your side. It’s an unbeatable combination.

When you bring your prayer needs before the Father, Jesus is echoing those prayers to God, too. He might be phrasing them differently because he knows what is best for you, but that’s an even greater scenario.

And when you’re in so much pain you don’t know what to pray, God has sent his Holy Spirit to pray the words for you:

“We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Romans 8:26 ESV)

Be encouraged today to know you are covered in prayer by Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

(From my upcoming book, Your Life With God: 30 Days of Incredible Prayer. Releases 2019.)