Oswald Chambers says;
"Intercession means raising ourselves up to the point of getting the mind of Christ regarding the person for whom we are praying…..When we lose site of God we become hard and dogmatic. We throw our petitions at His throne and dictate to Him what we want Him to do….”
There was always something inside me that struggled when I would hear someone teach that all we needed to do was name, in faith, what we want from God and claim it…have enough faith and it will happen. If what we pray for doesn’t come to pass, it’s because we had a lack of faith. I cannot tell you how many people I have seen hurt over the years by this teaching.
I always used to have a hard time when I would engage in intercessory prayer. I was never comfortable telling God how I thought things should be. Then I wondered if I was being ‘double-minded’ in my prayer life, exhibiting a lack of faith. Things just weren’t fitting together for me.
This quote from Chambers reflects how I have come to understand intercessory prayer in the past couple of years. When I pray for someone, I lift that person up to God and ask Him to tell me how He wants me to pray for them. If I don’t sense Him speaking, I just lift that individual up to Him…and leave my concern for them there.
If something is pressing deeply on my heart, I tell God what I’m feeling…I am honest with Him about what I would like to see happen, but I always say…” what I want more than what I want is what You want.” I do not think this is a prayer of unbelief. I am not praying this way because I ‘hedge my bets’ in case God doesn’t respond the way I want Him too. I pray this way because I believe my desire for God’s will over my own desires is a prayer close to God’s heart. That, I believe …is the essence of faith.
Grace and Peace,
Deb
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