PERCOLATING PRAYERS

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”  (Ephesians 6:18a NIV)

I have friends who spend hours each day interceding in prayer. Their children are grown and gone, and they can devote extended time to supplication. I’m not in the same place of life. Sure, I pray daily, and I have a prayer journal I write in consistently. But during these busy years when my three children consume most of my waking hours, I also find strength in little prayers. I like to call them “percolating prayers.”

All kinds of these short, power-packed prayers pop up throughout the Gospels: The disciples prayed, “Lord, save us!” The troubled mother prayed, “Lord, help me!” The soldier cried, “Lord, my servant is suffering.…” The teacher of the law said, “Teacher, I will follow You.…” The leper said, “Lord, You can make me clean….” The blind man called out, “Have mercy on us, Lord….”

Today, my little prayers went something like this: “Surround us with Your love.” “Teach me.” “Fill us with Your Spirit.” “Help me to be patient.” “Please give the kids wisdom.” “We need Your guidance.” “Thank You, Lord.” “Wow, God! You are awesome!”

Some prayers are requests for help. Others simply acknowledge the facts. The form or shape of the prayer really doesn’t matter. There are no restrictions on when or where these prayers can percolate.... What matters most is that we connect with God and link our soul with our Power Source. As the gentle touch of a light switch generates power to illuminate a room, so, too, our little prayers connect us with God and release His energy to empower us for the day. 

-- Pam Vredevelt in “Espresso for Your Spirit”

#5985

PRAYING FOR OTHERS

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”  (Colossians 1:9-12 ESV)

The prayer of intercession means prayer for others. It is our faint echo of Christ’s everlasting intercession for us before the throne of God. It is love and concern for people lifted to the highest point, as we bring them before the throne of God in prayer. I do not know why God should need our prayers, or why God gives the unspeakable privilege of helping Him in His world; but I am sure God does. I am sure that human intercession adds something to the creative and redemptive energy even of God Himself. I am sure that the people God can most depend on are the pray-ers who lift up other people before Him, and hold them in prayer. 

-- Samuel M. Shoemaker in “We Believe in Prayer”

#5886

A PRAYING CHURCH IN TODAY’S WORLD

“The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous person (believer) can accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God -- it is dynamic and can have tremendous power].”  (James 5:16b AMP)

It is reported that Mary, Queen of Scots, once said, “I fear the prayers of John Knox more that I fear all the armies on the face of the earth.” That was probably the last time anyone feared the prayers of the church.

The world does not fear the church – it barely tolerates it. Generally, the world perceives the church as no longer a player in world affairs, only an observer,… of a culture that has long since abandoned Christian presuppositions as a serious voice in shaping the values of modern society. The church is a quaint relic of the past that lends a certain charm to the neighborhood, a holdover from bygone days, big but harmless, like a beached whale.

For many, the crucial question facing the church is will it survive. I can answer that question. Yes, the church will survive. God has never left Himself without a witness, and His church will still be around when the curtain comes down on this [world]. It may not survive in its present form, but God help us if we’re interested only in surviving. Christ intends that His church do a lot more. 

-- Ronald Dunn in “Don’t Just Stand There, Pray Something: The Incredible Power of Intercessory Prayer”

#5885

SENDING AGENTS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

“Pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”  (James 5:16b NIV)

I earnestly believe that intercessory prayer surrounds the person with the love of God in a special way.  Through prayer we do not so much manipulate God to do our will as we become surrendered instruments through whom God's love can move to those who are dear to us.

We usually think of prayer as a means whereby we reach another person through God.  But I am suggesting that prayer is a way in which God can flow through us to that other person.

We can all be sending agents for the love of God.  I am convinced that in prayer we become channels through whom the passionate love of God flows and engulfs other persons.

The more we pray, the more channels there are for the infinite love of our Lord to flow to, surround, and invade the person we hold up in prayer. 

-- Tony Campolo

#4928 

ESTRANGEMENT AND RECONCILIATION

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our harps.”  (Psalm 137:1-2)

Methodist missionary and evangelist E. Stanley Jones once wrote of a time early in his Christian experience. “For months after my conversion,” he wrote, “I was running under cloudless skies. And then suddenly I tripped, almost fell, pulled back this side of sin, but was shaken and humiliated that I could come that close to sin. I thought I was emancipated and found I wasn’t.”

Then he goes on to tell of the effort of special friends in his small group who played an intercessory role: “I went to the class meeting -- I’m grateful that I didn’t stay away -- went, but my (spiritual) music had gone. I had hung my harp on a weeping willow tree. As the others spoke of their joys and victories of the week, I sat there with the tears rolling down my cheeks. I was heartbroken. After the others had spoken, John Zink, the class leader, said, ‘Now, Stanley, tell us what is the matter.’ I told them I couldn’t, but would they please pray for me? Like one man they fell to their knees, and they lifted me back to the bosom of God by faith and love. When we got up from our knees, I was reconciled. The universe opened its arms and took me in again. The estrangement was gone. I took my heart from the willow tree and began to sing again…”

-- E. Stanley Jones in “A Song of Ascents”


#4153

RESTING OUR WEARY SOULS

"So too the Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance." (Romans 8:26 AMP)

It is not necessary to maintain a conversation when we are in the presence of God.  We can come into His presence and rest our weary souls in quiet contemplation of Him.  Our groanings, which cannot be uttered, rise to Him and tell Him better than words how dependent we are upon Him.

-- O. Hallesby in Prayer

#3653

THE SPIRIT OF GOD

"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ -- if, in fact, we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him…   Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.  And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." (Romans 8:14-17, 26-27 NRSV)

For the Spirit we have received is the Spirit of the Son of God, and we possessing it are God's [children] too, and "that of God in us" leaps out towards the God who is the source of it.  The Spirit of Jesus within us moves us to prayer: indeed, prayer is just the moving of God's Son in us towards the Father.  Though we are burdened with the greatness of our need, so that our prayers are not even articulate, yet in such "inarticulate sighs" the Spirit "intercedes for us."

-- C. Harold Dodd in The Meaning of Paul for Today


#3451

PRAYING THROUGH

Our generation desperately needs to rediscover the difference between praying for and praying through.  There are certainly circumstances where praying for something will get the job done.  I believe in short prayers before meals because, quite frankly, I believe in eating food while it's still hot.  But there are also situations where you need to grab hold of the horns of the altar and refuse to let go until God answers… you refuse to move from the circle until God moves.  You intercede until God intervenes.

Praying through is all about consistency.  It's circling Jericho so many times it makes you dizzy.  Like the story Jesus told about the persistent widow who drove the judge crazy with her relentless requests, praying through won't take no for an answer.  Circle makers know that it's always too soon to quit praying because you never know when the wall is about to fall.  You are always only one prayer away from a miracle.

Praying through is all about intensity.  It's not quantitative; it's qualitative.  Drawing prayer circles involves more than words; it's gut-wrenching groans and heartbreaking tears.  Praying through doesn't just bend God's ear; it touches the heart of your heavenly Father.

-- Mark Batterson in The Circle Maker


#3403

INTERCEDING FOR US

"Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died -- more than that, who was raised to life -- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." (Romans 8:34 NIV)

If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies.  Yet distance makes no difference.  He is praying for me.

-- Robert Murray M'Cheyne


#3364

THE SPIRIT INTERCEDES

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”  (Romans 8:26-27 NRSV)

[We are not] alone in our struggles.  The Holy Spirit supports our helplessness.  Left to ourselves we do not know what prayers to offer or how to offer them.  But in those inarticulate groans which rise from the depth of our being, we recognize the voice of none other than the Holy Spirit.  He makes intercession; and His intercession is sure to be answered.  For God Who searches the inmost recesses of the heart can interpret His own Spirit's meaning.  He knows that His own Will regulates Its petitions, and that they are offered for [His children] dedicated to His service.

-- William Sanday & Arthur C. Headlam in A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans


#3352

THE VALUE OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER

I earnestly believe that intercessory prayer surrounds the person with the love of God in a special way.  Through prayer we do not so much manipulate God to do our will as we become surrendered instruments through whom God's love can move those who are dear to us.

We usually think of prayer as a means whereby we reach another person through God.  But I am suggesting that prayer is a way in which God can flow through us to that other person.

We can all be sending agents for the love of God.  I am convinced that in prayer we become channels through whom the passionate love of God flows and engulfs other persons.

The more we pray, the more channels there are for the infinite love of our Lord to flow to, surround, and invade the person we hold up in prayer. 

-- Tony Campolo


#3139