A Prayer For You: Unseen

Does it sometimes feel that other people simply don’t see you? Maybe they recognise your face and know your name, but few know who you really are. Perhaps you are the one who others overlook. It appears to you that what others do is noticed and valued, but what you do is seldom seen. Maybe you always find yourself standing on the sidelines, watching others succeed and be noticed, wondering if what you do is of any worth to anyone.

Many of us feel unseen, unknown, overlooked, and unworthy. Sometimes we sense we simply do not fit in, however much we want to, or maybe our face has become so familiar that it seems it is easily forgotten.

As a child who had few sporting skills, I know what it is like to be left standing on the goal line after everyone else has been chosen for the team. I know how it hurts when others do not value what you have to offer but be encouraged because you are seen by God, and that changes everything.

So shall we pray together, because God sees us, values us, and it gives him great pleasure when we talk with him.

Father God, we feel that we are often unseen, and overlooked in life, and that hurts and often makes things worse as we withdraw inside ourselves. Sometimes we hardly dare speak to you because we fear that you will not hear us, or that we are not good enough to deserve a response from you.

But Father, your word tells us, that not only do you see every detail of our lives, but that you knew us before we were even born. And more than this, you love us with a passion beyond our understanding. So, we thank you for seeing us here and now, and we are encouraged because nothing about us is unknown to you.

So, Father, it is refreshing and such a relief that we can talk with you, knowing that you know us and see us and yet still care. We are encouraged too when we read how Jesus chose to spend time with the people who others chose not to see, and how he chose to bring healing and hope to those who had nothing to hope in.

And, Father, we know that there will always be people with talent and big personalities, who stand out from the crowd and attract the attention of many. We thank you for the positive contributions that they bring to our lives, but at the same time, we ask that you might see the contribution to life that we have to offer and that you will give us the opportunities we hope for, to participate wherever we are able. And thank you, Father, that you see what we do, even when others don’t seem to, and that you value everything good that we have to offer.

Please help us, Jesus, to resist the temptation to speak badly of those who are much more noticed than us, and help us too, to refrain from trying too hard to get ourselves and what we do seen by others. You, Jesus, taught that it is often better to do good things that go mostly unnoticed than to try to draw attention to ourselves because you see us, and ultimately that is what really matters.

And finally, we ask, that you might use us to help the people around us who may feel the same as us. Use our smiles, our quiet words of encouragement, our prayers, and the things we do to touch their lives and help them see that they are not unseen. Help us to see the unseen people as you do.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.

Amen