You know those times when you are having a semi-earnest chat with someone and  they express a concern,  like their brother is having surgery next week or they have suffered with a migraine for the last three days?  You want to tell them you will be praying for them but you don’t have a piece of paper or a writing tool, the notes on your phone are too hard to get to, and you are afraid you will forget and never pray for them when you said you would?

Or you run into someone at the mall and when you ask what they are up to they say they are on their way to a job interview and they hope they can think of the right things to say, and you realize it won’t do much good to say you will pray for them tomorrow.

Here’s the solution.  Just pray right now.  Short, specific, God-centered prayers are welcome almost all the time.  I say almost because probably someone somewhere has rebelled when someone asked if they could pray for them.

All you have to remember is who God is:  the Great Healer; the Comforter; the one who keeps all His promises (including wisdom whenever we ask); the forgiver of sins.  Jesus is our defender and the Holy Spirit prays our prayers before the throne with sighs deeper than words.  As an aside, this is another blessed reason to study scripture every day – not only are God’s mercies new every morning, but some mornings you find out something about God that you can pray for someone later in the day!