05/03/2023
When we offer intercessory prayer for those around us, is our own sympathy for them getting in the way of effective prayer? Are we putting our own desires for them between them and God? So often we pray our will, and not God’s, and this can happen when we pray for others as well. Do we pray with empathy, or sympathy for others?
“praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,”
Ephesians 6:18 ESV
Scripture tells us to pray for others, and in fact I am an intercessor. I pray for others every day, and not just trivially. This is something I have been called to do. Many have the misconceived notion that intercessory prayer is some flowing oration suitable for publication... but it is not. Intercessory prayers are comprised of real language to a real God in the midst of real life issues, and we ask for His real will to be done.
There are pitfalls in going to God for someone else, and one of the largest ones is to allow your own sympathy for that person to place us in a position of questioning what God is doing in that person's life. The Lord takes us through trials that are meant to perfect us in some way and the intercessor should pray that this work is done swiftly and completely to the fulfillment of God's will in another's life. Oswald Chambers puts this very succinctly when he writes:
"As we go on in intercession we may find that our obedience to God is going to cost other people more than we thought. The danger then is to begin to intercede in sympathy with those whom God was gradually lifting to a totally different sphere in answer to our prayers." - Oswald Chambers
I have found myself praying my own will as our Heavenly Father took someone through a valley that I couldn't understand. He was dealing with them in a way that was beyond my comprehension and it was difficult for me to watch... much less understand how to pray for. One such situation is in praying for a replacement organ; especially for a child. I have wrestled with this, and asked God "How can I pray that one child will live when I know that another must die?" The answer is that God's will is perfect and our prayer should be for His will to be done. We only know one of these children that must participate in this exchange, but our Father knows them both and all about their families and circumstances. Our sympathy must not get in the way of His will. Our prayers shouldn't become a snare that cripples God's plan for someone.
I have known families that have lost a child and it is devastating, but I have also watched as their faith was taken to a level that I found amazing. From the ashes of their suffering and despair came treasure that couldn't have been predicted.
My grandparents lost three children, a one year old to pneumonia, a four year old to dysentery, and a teenager in an automobile accident, but I also know the end result, and that was a family whose faith became rooted so deep that it would last for many generations. Yet, in the midst of their suffering what do you think the prayers of my grandparents were? They could not see beyond the death bed of their children... so they trusted in God. They held onto their faith with an iron grip. How would you pray for a family as it went through such suffering if you were called to do so today? Would your sympathy allow you to pray "not my will, but yours be done?"
So when we pray as intercessors we should pray what our own heart’s desire... the pain to go away, the suffering to end, the child to rise from their death bed, but then, once our hearts have been revealed, we should also seek God's will and ultimately pray as Jesus did "not my will, but yours be done." In the midst of heartache and suffering the Lord works on in us, and in this, His will, we should find the roots of our faith.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your goodness and your perfect will. I praise you for being able to turn the darkest moments of my life into beams of shining light. In my sorrow you comfort me, in my pain you soothe me, in the midst of danger you save me, in the storm you give me safe haven. Father, I might not understand as I make my way through life's hardships, but in the end I see your goodness, and I hold you all the tighter. Keep me Father, and when I pray for others, don't let my desires for them become a stumbling block for your will in their lives... because I know that your will is perfect and my sympathy fallible. What seems insurmountable to me is but a step to you, build my trust in your stride, and give me faith in you that defeats my own sympathetic desires. You are my master, and I but a servant in your house. You are the answer to prayer, and I am just its voice.
Rich Forbes