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A Thought On Intercessory Prayer

The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made.  

Psalm 145:9


As a new chaplain, I have had more numerous and frequent opportunities to pray for others than ever before in my life.  As I’ve been given these opportunities, I’ve been learning to overcome a previous apprehension (and wrong thinking) that has stunted my intercessory prayer.  


Here is the typical flawed logic formerly at work in me.  I would have a person open up to me about something hard in their life.  Then I would make a determination based on what I know about their behavior/lifestyle as to whether God would delight to answer any of their prayer requests.  Then I would pray, often over-spiritualizing my prayer since in my judgment I didn’t believe that God would answer the concrete request since the person didn’t have a relationship with Jesus.  


I’m sure you can easily spot the foolishness of this line of thinking!  It ignores grace.  And it dismisses this verse above from Psalm 145.  


My faith is growing as I intercede for others as a chaplain, because what I know about God is informing my perspective more and more.  I know that God has enough mercy to go around.  I know that He is not stingy with His resources.  I know that His answering of prayer has nothing to do with the merits of the one making the request.  


God is freely generous.  So when someone comes to me with a need, I can boldly intercede for them and ask specifically for that need to be met, even if they don’t believe in God or haven’t made a commitment for Jesus.  In fact, I’m guessing that many of us can share pieces of testimony of how God’s generosity was part of what persuaded us to make a decision to follow Jesus in the first place!  


So I cherish the plethora of opportunities I have to intercede for others, because I know that the One who hears our prayers has a heart of compassion and goodness.  He is One whose “natural resource” of mercy is inexhaustible and never runs dry.  I can confidently intercede because of who God is and because of His proven track record of graciously answering countless prayers of people who merit only coal in their stockings.  


When my focus is on the hearer of intercession rather than on the petitioner, my faith grows and my prayers are bold.  And I’ve seen God answer with goodness and mercy time and again.

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