When Conviction Hits: Learning to Honor Our Prayer Promises
- Jane Isley
- Nov 17
- 3 min read
I didn’t expect a wake-up call from God to come through a text message.
“Thank you so much for your prayers!”
To my shame, I didn’t even remember what their prayer request was. I had to scroll back through my messages and look. It wasn’t a small request.
I can’t even begin to tell you the shame I felt in that moment.
In that moment, I felt convicted in a way I had never experienced before. It wasn’t gentle at all. It was that cast iron pan upside the head that left a migraine kinda pow.
The weight of promises.
When we tell someone, “I’ll be praying for you,” we’re making more than a polite gesture. We’re making a promise, one God Himself hears.
To forget that promise is no different than telling a friend you’ll show up to help them move, and then never arriving.
That day, I realized I had been beyond careless and thoughtless with my words. They reached out to me in need, and I didn’t come through when I said I would. I felt wrecked in that moment.
I cried, and I asked God to forgive me and change me.
It has been a journey in changing my habits. It is important to understand that when convicted, you still have to do the work that goes with it; conviction doesn’t mean instant change of behaviour, it means God is calling you out on behaviour that must change.
That is why it took so long to write about this change in my life; it was a learning process and a mental/physical habit that I needed to fix because I was convicted.
Ultimately, it is impossible to describe the profound impact this has had on my life in many areas, and I encourage everyone to reevaluate how they handle prayer requests. It will say a lot about your heart and relationship with Christ.
I want to share a few things that I have learned along the way.
This is akin to a covenant in a lot of ways. “a covenant is a promise between two or more parties to perform certain actions.”
A prayer doesn’t have to be fancy words, just sincere and full of faith.
I don’t care if I’m in the middle of doing something with people around me. I close my eyes and lift them up in prayer, and when someone asks what’s up, I tell them the truth. I was praying for someone.
Be bold and courageous in your faith.
Here’s a neat thing: once you pray, you remember their prayer request better. It’s like when you meet someone and say their name, so next time you have a better chance of remembering their name.
Discovered the same happens for prayer requests.
Some days are better than others regarding the request details, and you won’t remember every prayer request or every single detail for weeks on end. And that’s ok, you remember their name and their need, God will take care of the rest.
We are not built to remember every prayer request for weeks on end. We get new data every day, but God will put it on your heart out of nowhere sometimes, so listen to that.
You will fail at this sometimes; you will backslide and forget, but keep moving forward with this new chapter of your faith.
God has taught me to keep pressing forward, to keep growing, and not let failure pull me back into old habits.
Prayer is both a duty and a gift.
It’s one of the most intimate promises we can make to one another, bringing a need before God. And if God has never once broken a promise to us, how can we treat our own promises so lightly?
This journey has humbled me, convicted me, and reshaped me. And though I’m still learning, I can say with confidence: honoring the prayers we promise transforms more than our habits.
It transforms our relationship with God and with others.
So the next time you tell someone, “I’m praying for you,” stop and pray. Right there. Right then.
Because prayer is not a courtesy, it’s a covenant.
(This piece is a revision of an early work and has been rewritten to reflect how God continues to mold me, draw me to this topic, and with a lot better grammar.)
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