05/03/2025
When we offer intercessory prayers for those around us, is our own sympathy for them getting in the way of offering effective prayer? Are we putting our own desires for their wellbeing between them and God? Scripture tells us to pray for others, and in fact I am a dedicated intercessor. I pray for others every day, and not just trivially. Although this is something we are called to do many of us have the misconceived notion that intercessory prayer is some flowing oration suitable for publication... but it is not. Intercessory prayers should be comprised of real language to a real God in the midst of real-life issues, and we are meant to ask that His real will be done. Intercessory prayer allows us to reconcile our will with God’s.
“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
There are pitfalls in going to the Lord for someone else, and one of the largest ones is to allow our 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 that person's life. Pastor Oswald Chambers speaks of this 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
Sometimes I would find myself praying sympathetically 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. An example of one such situation is when 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 be healed and allowed to live when I know that this means another must die?" The answer is that God's will is perfect and our prayers should be for His will to be done. Typically, we only know one of these children that are about to participate in this exchange, but our Father knows them both and all about their families and circumstances. Our sympathy for the one we know mustn’t be contrary to, or get in the way of, His will. Our prayers shouldn't become a snare that attempts to cripple 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 increased by that loss and were brought to a level of believing that I found amazing. From the ashes of their suffering and despair came a 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 jelled and became rooted so deeply by those tragedies that it would last for many generations. Yet, in the midst of their immediate suffering what do you think the prayers of my grandparents were? They could not see beyond the death bed of their children... so they prayed for healing and then trusted in God. Despite their personal desires 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 on 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... that the pain to go away, the suffering end, and the children rise from their death beds, 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 the heartache and suffering God continues to work out His will, and in this one difficult truth our faith should be rooted.
Prayer:
Father, 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 and mourning you comfort me, in my pain you soothe me, in the midst of danger you save me, and at the height of every storm you relieve my fear and 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 onto my belief and faith in you with a much tighter grip. Help me Lord when I come face to face with death. I know that we are all meant to die but whether it is me personally, or another, I am prone to resist and mourn death. Help me to lean on you and trust in you to comfort me in these moments of death. Teach me to take refuge in your arms and find peace in you as you bless me in my grieving. Give me confidence in the truth that Life in this world is short, the moment of death is but a breath in length… an instant, and that eternity with you is not only forevermore, but without beginning and end.
Help me Father, and when I pray for others, don't let my sympathetic desires for them become a stumbling block for your will in their lives... because I know that your will is always perfect and that my sympathy is fallible. What seems insurmountable to me is a small step for you, help me to trust in your stride, and give me a strength of faith in you that soothes and defeats my own sympathetic desires. You are my master, and I but a servant in your house, but in every role that I play in my life, and in every way that I turn as I follow you, I find that I am your child, and in this fact your love and care abounds for me always. Teach me to honor and trust in you, and your will, whether it results in life or death, joy or sadness, suffering or perfect health, because in all ways, and all things, it is good… you are merciful, and your grace is sufficient for me. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God in whose hands I have placed my all and in whom I take comfort in every season of my life. Holy are you who loves me so much that you sent your own Son Jesus Christ to live out every situation which I now find myself praying in intercession for… and that I live out and pray over in my own life. Great are you, and greatly to be praised, because in you I am perfected and made complete, righteous, and holy.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah… Amen!
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2 ESV
Rich Forbes