Prayers of Intercession are prayers asking on the behalf of others. We pray for others because we love them, we want the best for them, or we do not want them to suffer. It is essential that we pray for each other for it is our path to help each other get to heaven. However, these prayers can also, at times, be the most difficult or frustrating.
We usually have a specific answer in mind as we pray. But no matter how much we love or pray for another, there are times when our prayers seem to go nowhere. Although our hearts know better, it seems that God is not listening, nothing seems to be changing for the better, and we get discouraged and want to give up. However, praying for another person is complicated as it involves way more than we understand. We have tunnel vision and tend to see things in only one way, but God sees things in all ways. He knows each soul, their path, and what is best for them.
God gave us all the gift of a free will and highly respects this gift, for he wants each one of us on our own to choose him and what is good. When we pray for someone else, he must work with their free will, and what is in their heart. God works from the inside out, and he knows what is needed to bring a soul to him. Sometimes it may take awhile to change the heart of one we are praying for, or God may need to chip at or break down a wall they have built in front of them. He often works in little steps, teaching us with each step, and it seems that his timing is never as quick as we would like.
God has a path for each person and perhaps the things we are praying for is not God’s will for that person. Sometimes the answer to a prayer is not what we expect nor want, but only that which God will allow. He alone knows the past, present, and future, and what is in the path of each soul he has created. Only God can change their path in life and what they are to do.
James Dobson, Evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder in 1977 of Focus on the Family, wrote the book, When God Doesn’t Make Sense. In this book he tells the story of a preacher whose daughter at the age of 15 developed a tumor in her leg. Doctors said they would have to amputate her leg, but her father believed that God would do a miracle and save her leg. He got his entire church to do a 24-hour vigil of fasting and prayer. Thousands of people around the United States and overseas were praying for his daughter’s healing. However, when the day came for the surgery, the doctors had to amputate her leg.
This story bothered me for a long time, and I prayed for understanding. These people did everything right. They prayed with trust and with all their faith that God would save her leg. What happened here? Where did the graces of those prayers go? One day I discovered a book that his daughter, who is now grown, wrote about this important part of her life.
In her book she described how she herself accepted God’s will with peace and strength, and how the many prayers also helped her parents to understand God’s will for her path, especially her father. He, in time, felt peace and worked to help others understand their own prayers that do not seem to be answered. As he tells the story of his daughter now, he says when we pray for others to not demand explanations nor expect to understand what God is doing, for he works far beyond our understanding. Because of his experience, he encourages others to not lose faith and to place all their trust in God, for there are many reasons why God does what he does.
God had great plans for his daughter who married and became a licensed recreation therapist and a nationally certified handicapped ski instructor. God had prepared her path in life, and with her experience, she impacted many people with a message of hope and encouragement in a way that only one who had been through this would understand.
When we pray for a loved one because of their illness or suffering, we must remember that God is always in control. Sometimes he may allow suffering for a time for reasons we do not understand, and sometimes he calls our loved ones home to him for their path on earth has ended. If our prayers for another are harmful to their faith or their path or not of God’s will, then those prayers will go where they are most needed.
God sees and hears all prayers and desires, but always knows what is best for a soul. If we try to figure out God, we may become angry, bitter, or resentful, but our prayers are never wasted. The graces will flow exactly where God wants them to go, sometimes for the person we are praying for, and sometimes to change the heart of the one who is praying. Sometimes the graces of our prayers come back to us for understanding, strength, patience, wisdom, and trust knowing that God loves the ones we pray for far more than we do.
Praying for others can give us much joy, but also frustration. The main thing to remember is to always pray for others, no matter how discouraged or frustrated or busy we are. We must let God be God and trust and believe that as we pray he would never abandon us, or the person we are praying for. We must pray with faith. The most powerful intercessory prayer may be to only pray for another to have the strength to do God’s will.
God commissions all of us to be prayer warriors. Because we are the Body of Christ, we are all connected to each other. When we pray for others, it affects not only that person but all of us, for one soul who prays will bring many souls to God.
As God’s faithful ones, we must take our intercessor role very seriously, and never give up praying for each other. It must become a priority to make time every day to pray for those we love and even those we do not know. Never underestimate how much God can use you to bring his people to him and how your simple prayers can be healing for others. Being God’s prayer warrior is a gift to God, to others, and to ourselves for even one prayer is powerful!
Copyright © 2024 Marsha Luke – Rights for non-commercial reproduction granted: May be copied in its entirety, but neither retyped nor edited.