“I’ll pray for you”: the “Nuclear Option”

When we hear such pious phrases from others, it can seem to be a throw-away line. Sadly, we even sometimes use it in that way, as if to say, “There’s nothing more that I can do to help you, so as a last resort, I’ll pray for you.” …as if prayer should only be employed when nothing else has worked…like the “nuclear option.” In the following excerpt from Tertullian, Father of the Church, we see that prayer is indeed a “nuclear option”, but it should, not as the last resort, but rather is the first and best resort: