While prayerwalking one day, it came to me (not for the first time): I’m praying mole prayers.
Moles are dim-sighted little creatures that live underground and dig surface tunnels for fair-weather foraging and deeper tunnels for cold or dry seasons.
Like them, I can’t “see” when I’m praying for grandchildren home alone on summer weekdays. For my son hiking that 70-mile trail, that he’ll be safe and drink enough fluids. For my husband and me, that we’ll stay healthy and able to enjoy retirement.
Those are, in mole terms, my surface tunnels, with direction and results somewhat visible. But I’ve also constructed deeper tunnels—years of sight-impaired intercession for prodigals to find Jesus as Savior and then make Him their Lord. For healing between family members. For forgiveness, long withheld, to be extended. For the effects of divorce to be mitigated in our grandchildren.
Thankfully, the Holy Spirit joins me, praying keen-eyed and God-aligned: “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans . . . in accordance with the will of God” (Rom. 8:26–27).
Beyond inability to see well, moles and prayers are alike in other ways:
- Both are largely hidden. The mole spends most of his life underground. Jesus taught of personal prayer, “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen” (Matt. 6:6).
- Both are intentional. Like the torpedo-shaped moles, faith-filled prayers are streamlined and deliberate. “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).
- Both are persistent.Moles and prayer are active day and night and do not hibernate. When conditions grow cold or dry, they just dig deeper. “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1).
- Both have enemies. The moles’ enemies have pulled out the stops with remedies, from flooding their holes to using pickle juice or unleashing attack ferrets! Likewise, Satan schemes against prayer, the world distracts, and the flesh protests. But Paul urged those engaged in spiritual battle to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (Eph. 6:18).
- Both have worth (although prayer’s value easily surpasses that of moles!). It’s said that the mole’s digging improves drainage, benefits plants, and reduces flooding. Through our prayers, God redirects lives, heals families, and redeems failures. Our Father saves those treasured prayers in “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people” (Rev. 5:8).
Mole prayers, then, are Spirit-aided, Satan-resistant, and very effective. And if we don’t have a ton of these zipping about the lawn of our world—digging prayer tunnels and raising prayer hills—we and ours are poorer for it.
So, pray those blind but persistent prayers today with confidence that the Holy Spirit is joining you. Send them off and watch them go—your little underground torpedoes speeding, all unseen, to the Father.
Mole prayers.
SANDY MAYLE is a frequent contributing writer to Prayer Connect.
