Are unspoken prayer requests selfish?

[Rebecca]

Why would an unspoken prayer request be selfish? Couldn't you say the same thing in reverse, that it's entirely selfish -- and greedy, and gossipy -- that you would NOT pray UNLESS you know what you're praying for?

And why would you assume something nepharious about someone asking for prayer simply because they don't want to talk about why they need prayer in front of the whole dang world? Facebook? Darn skippy it would be an "unspoken" prayer request -- a request made to my true friends, who are surrounded by my acquaintences, who might also pray.

We all know how FB works; two and fifty virtual strangers among your ten really close friends, all of whom are reading everything you do and say, and likely spreading it to everyone else, perfectly innocently, of course. Some legitimately trying to be helpful; others like my mom, the very last person I would tell anything to because she would tell every last single person she came in contact with... "just to get people to pray for you, dear." No, Mom, just so you could have something to talk about. Lots of people like that.

In the end, my true friends will have the ability to call me, write me, ask me, whatever, and I can then choose to tell them, or not, but my friends most likely know what's going on, my acquaintances and coworkers don't need to know what's going on, but I will take the prayers nonetheless. Guaranteed, if I'm putting it out there on FB, it's not so I get the shiny red new Mustang for my birthday.

In the end, God knows what the issues are, and someone refusing to pray because they don't get let in on the secret? Geez. Then you are shooting yourself in your foot because you are denying yourself the chance to see God move on someone else's behalf.

And for myself, I'd rather have someone tell me, Pray for Dave. Unspoken need. Rather than, Pray for Dave. He . . .drinks beer in the morning. Come to find out, Dave doesn't drink beer in the morning. Dave's marriage is on the verge fo collapse. Don't want to tell me that? That's fine. But don't lie. But I pray for Dave, and when I ask God to help Dave stop drinking, God knows to repair Dave's marriage, which He did do. God's not actually dumb. He actually does know what needs done before we bring it to His attention.

If someone is asking for prayer, it is our job to pray, not decide the validity of that prayer based on the gossip-ability of it.

* I am not accusing anyone of wanting to know what's going on for the sake of gossip. Just that those people most definitely do exist. And our prayers are not "less effective" because we don't use the exact words before God.