God’s Gift of Intercessory
Do you desperately need someone to pray for you? Women Today’s prayer team is committed to lifting your needs and requests to the Lord in prayer.
God has given us the gift of intercessory prayer so we can share each other’s burdens. Paul tells us in Galatians 6:2, 3 “Share each others troubles and problems, and in this way we obey the law of Christ.” If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are fooling yourself, you are really a nobody.” A friend whose husband was deployed to the Middle East recently shared with me how she had been aware of intercessory prayers by our church family.
“As a wife and mother of four precious children, you would think I would be able to fervently pray for my husband, during his 8 month deployment, yet I could not. All my life I have had a gift for strong intercessory prayer but when it came to my husband serving in the war – it was too close to home I guess and too terrifying. Of course, the kids and I prayed for him daily but as far as deep, intercessory prayer, it was the faithful prayer warriors of our church who took that on as a personal and practical way to ‘support our troops.’ It was such a comfort to me to know my husband and our family was covered in prayer. So many times during those challenging eight months of single parenting, I would feel a wave of peace settle over me – as if someone had slipped a warm blanket over my shoulders. I knew it was the Holy Spirit through someone praying for me – “the peace that surpasses all understanding.” So how can you support our troops? Keep praying. Your prayers make a difference.”
She found this scripture to be true and comforting for her: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).
Do you know someone in your church or community who needs your prayers? Sometimes when we are going through difficult times we cannot pray for ourselves. However, God has given us the gift of intercessory prayer, which is praying for each other.
Praying for the ongoing inspiration, inner guidance, and spiritual help for those in need is a daily discipline, but adding to those prayers the specifics about what’s going on in their lives demands that we stay in touch with them. If we know the details of their circumstances it keeps us on our toes so that we will know what to pray about, what their needs, hopes, dreams, frustrations, anxieties, fears, concerns, joys and expectations actually are. Knowing that we do intercessory praying is a reminder to them to keep in touch too. It is always a blessing when someone tells you they are praying for you. If you don’t tell them, they miss the blessing of knowing that you are sharing their burden.
If you don’t know of anyone who needs your prayers, ask God to show you for whom He would like you to pray. When we ask God to use us to touch the lives of others, He will bring someone into our lives.
Dear Lord, show me whom I can help by walking beside them to share the load of their burden. Help me to be sensitive to the needs of my family, friends, and those with whom I come in contact. Show me whose live you want me to touch.
Questions: Is there someone who you know that you could pray for and walk along side of?
About the Author Lillian Penner
Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, He Honors the Humble, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog
