Let’s talk about the Spiritual Practice of Intercessory Prayer today. This practice is one that most of you are probably already doing. When we pray in intercession for others, we effectively stand in the gap for that person by petitioning God to intercede in their situation. Intercessory prayer allows us to step into a situation and act as a bridge, taking the focus away from our own needs and centering our attention on the needs of the other.

Intercessory Prayer is an important function in the household of God. When we pray for others, we join God in the compassion, caring, and healing ministries that build love and strengthen bonds among the household members. We can find our Biblical mandate for Intercessory Prayer in 1 Timothy:

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— (1 Timothy 2:1, New International Version).

Paul certainly knew what he was doing by calling them to pray for each other, didn’t he? When people put other peoople’s needs before their own, those relationships are elevated above personal concerns. And the power of those prayers are realized as we work and live our lives together. Prayer is not just the work of the pastors on Sunday morning! It is the work of the people every day. I bet you can tell a story of when intercessory prayer changed your life of the life of someone you know.

And we need to remember that God answers prayers in his own time. That is why people sometimes feel that prayer didn’t work; either because they didn’t get the answer they wanted, or it came so long after the prayer, they had given up. Even God’s “no” is an answer to prayer. A bitter one, indeed, but one that is absolutely for our best. We must trust that.

I recently was blessed to be able to prayer for a young church member who desperately needed a better paying job to be able to sustain her family and get out of a bit of debt. It took two years of hard praying through several disappointing interviews. But in one week, a job offer came through that was markedly better than any of the other positions she had applied for, and an inheritance was advanced that resolved the debt issue. We never stopped believing that God had a plan, but boy, did we have to wait for it! There were a lot of “no’s” before we got a “yes.” Thanks be to God, the deliverance was better than any of us could have imagined. Prayer works!

Paul encouraged his young churches to pray for one another to strengthen their relationships with each other and their relationship with God. So it is with us. May we be people of passionate and intentional prayer, praying for others by name and circumstance until we see the result.

Who will you pray for today?

Blooming