Will those prayers be heard?

QUESTION:
Because of recent things happening in our family, I have had a lot of people say they are praying for us. My question is: If the subject of the prayers is a believer, but the person praying is not a Christian (may think they are i.e. Mormon) will those prayers be heard?

RESPONSE:
First of all, let me say that when things happen in our lives, good or bad, it always helps to travel those roads with a community of people. The relationships we have with believers and non-believers alike are important. They shape and mold us in ways that strengthen our ability to serve God and impact our communities. It is wonderful that your friends know how seriously you take your relationship with God and that it causes them to turn to God in prayer on your behalf. God uses situations like these to bring people to a saving knowledge of His Son.

God has many incredible and awe-inspiring attributes, one of which is His omniscience. He knows everything that is seen, said, heard, and done on this earth. Proverbs 5:21 says, “For a man's ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all his paths.” Psalm 139:2-4 says, “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.” From Scripture, we know that God does indeed hear everything; including the prayers of non-believers.

In truth, God responds to the prayers of believers and non-believers in the same way: sometimes He answers yes, sometimes no, and sometimes He tells us to wait. The difference is that the believer can take comfort in the fact that God is working His will out in our lives, no matter the answer to our prayer. For the believer, prayer bridges the gap between Heaven and Earth in such a way that it draws us into a closer relationship with Him. Our prayers are two-way streets in which we communicate our desires to Him and, more importantly, He communicates with us.

1 John 5:14-15 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

When we communicate with God, and listening is an important part of communication, we can discern the will of God for our lives. Ephesians 3 says that God is able to do more than we ask. His plans for our lives are much broader than our immediate needs. He thinks long-term and has a special route marked out for us. When our non-Christian friends are praying for us, we can help draw them to that saving knowledge of God by celebrating or suffering well, seeking out and deferring to the will of the omniscient God we serve.