Chieko N. Okazaki wrote:
If you are the one experiencing the problem, you can pray for an easing of the burden, even if you cannot be delivered form it. And this step is particularly applicable if you know about a problem someone else is experiencing. You may not know how to solve someone else’s problem. You may not know how to help that person solve her own problem. There may not be a way for the problem to be solved. There may not even be a way to talk about the problem and share your sympathy directly with that person. But you can pray for her deliverance. You can remember her in your morning and evening prayers and lift your hearts to the Lord during the day in love and compassion and the desire that she will be delivered.
Being able to pray with sincerity of heart about a problem breaks down the walls of denial and evasion. When your praying on the inside about say, and addiction to a prescription drug, you can’t very well maintain the illusion on the outside that you don’t have a problem. Another important effect is that such a sincere prayer is an invitation for intervention. You are much less likely to reject help when it comes, even in an odd disguise. And if you are praying about the needs of someone else, then I think you are much more open to the whisperings of the Spirit about something that would help . . . A Year of Powerful Prayer, Chieko N. Okazaki (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013) p. 290-91
