The Call to Intercede
A few weeks ago I said that "a family without prayer is like a house without a roof – exposed to all sorts of winds and storms." This is true not just of blood families, but spiritual ones too. We need to be a people of prayer. Without consistent prayer, we are certainly at risk.
This week I want us to look at our great calling as Christians to pray for each other. The term we use for this is intercessory prayer.
Understanding True Intercession
The actual meaning of the word "intercede" is to go to somebody on behalf of somebody else. So someone might say to you "please speak to so-and-so for me, and ask them about this situation." You are then an 'intercessor' as you approach person B on behalf of person A.
Now, Jesus was and is the great intercessor when it comes to prayer! The great picture of this is in John 17, where Jesus prays for His disciples, and then for all the Christians in the ages to come. But even now, in His risen and ascended state, He intercedes for us, approaching God the Father on our behalf to ask for whatever it is we need. The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus "is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
Following Christ's Example
So if ever there was a reason for us to commit to intercessory prayer ourselves, this is it: Jesus is the great intercessor, and we want to live like Jesus don't we? We want our lives to emulate His, in our values, our ways, our actions, our love.
Jesus interceded. Do we? Do we approach God the Father with other people's needs or just our own?
Just after Jesus teaches the disciples the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11, He tells them a parable about intercession. A man goes to his friend at midnight asking for bread to feed an unexpected guest. Though the friend is reluctant to get up, the man's persistence pays off. Jesus concludes: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Luke 11:9).
This is a picture of intercession - one person going to another to bring someone else's needs before one who can do something about it. Asking, seeking, knocking if necessary, to get the answer!
Perhaps today you might consider joining an intercession team or simply committing to more interceding in your own prayer life. After all, as Andrew Murray wrote, "the work of intercession is the greatest work a Christian can do." Maybe the greatest work you can do for God in this life is to consistently bring His people to Him in prayer.
