‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.‘ – Philippians 4:6

How do we pray for one another?

How would you respond to the sort of message I might send my daughter: “Please pray for me to find my lost car keys, glasses, purse…”? Shouldn’t you be praying not just for my car keys to be found, but for the Lord to help me slow down, to lose my dependence on things (evidently I still have too many of them in my life if they get lost so easily) and for me to find my peace and my purpose in him alone?

In Matthew 13:22 Jesus describes “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth that choke the word, making it unfruitful.”

In other words all the things that fill up our lives and distract us from our walk with him, and from prayer.

Maybe we have a prayer list, but as we work through it, we can often end up praying for what might be termed “felt needs” rather than fundamental needs. We may be praying out of an exaggerated empathetic concern for someone’s plight. Or we can find ourselves praying, not as prayer warriors, but as prayer worriers, even though we are told not to be anxious about anything. This attitude of anxiety, however well meaning, can cause us not to trust what the Lord is doing. We can even end up telling him what WE think he should do, which is a staggering presumption.

True intercessory prayer is not about praying for quick fixes, even though there are definitely times help is needed NOW! There are often deeper issues involved, which might involve learning to trust God in the midst of a difficult situation, rather than being airlifted out of it. When our lives start to get in a muddle it may indicate that we’re not walking with the Lord. We’re heading off track and into the long grass. We need to get back on track and keep on track.

The same is true for pretty well every person for whom we might be praying, and every situation, great or small. The most effective intercessory prayer comes from spending more time waiting before the Lord to discover his will, and the most effective intercessory prayer is then to simply pray: “Father, your will be done”.

I’ll end with a brief extract from one of Paul’s prayers for the believers. This prayer transcends our day to day doings and lifts us up to God, who knows each one of us intimately, and also knows the perfect plans he has for us.

2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 ‘I pray that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘

With love in him,

Sarah

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