Do you need God to intervene for you in situations that are far beyond your capabilities to do anything about? You may have a number of needs that are complicated, frustrating and challenging to the point that they seem impossible to meet without outside help. And that list includes much more than your personal needs, doesn’t it? Like me, a lot of the stuff that needs a fix has to do with issues other people are facing, some they are aware of and some they probably aren’t.
I have to admit that some days I feel overwhelmed by caring about what others are going through, wishing I could fix their problems for them but realizing that there is only so much I can do. I think of those who have physical issues that are without known remedy, of the ones looking for a job or holding onto one in a competitive market, of the marriages that are being held together by a thread, of parents with wayward sons and daughters, of honest men and women being penalized for their moral integrity, of the majority of people in my community who don’t know Jesus…..the list is endless.
Can you relate to what I’m saying? Do you feel the burden of caring about the needs of others? What can we do? Where do we start? What difference can we make in any of this? The answer is simple and at the same time profound….we pray. We reach out to God and we ask him to do something in these situations that we can’t do.
We need supernatural intervention so we go directly to God and present our case to him, believing that he has the ability to meet the needs. We trust God to take care of everything large and small in his perfect timing and way. We acknowledge our feelings of weakness and helplessness in these matters and call out to him for his favour to be shown to us as his children. The Holy Spirit in us will help us to pray even when we don’t know what to specifically ask for if we surrender ourselves to him. We do this with an attitude of thankfulness for our privileged access to him through prayer and we do all of this with the desire that God will be glorified when the answers come.=
This Sunday I will be speaking to you about deep level prayer that we call intercession. To prepare I’d like you to look up the word ‘prayer’ in your concordance and check out examples in the Bible when people prayed to God on behalf of others. How did the people pray and what happened because they did? I will look at the role that intercessory prayer can play in our lives and ministries today.
I read recently that prayer is vital for followers of Christ because it gives us a lifeline to another realm (the unseen, spiritual) where our real hope and existence are. This reminds me that we have only scratched the surface of experiencing what God has in store for us to do his work in our world for his glory. So, let’s all go deeper.
See you Sunday…..blessings!
Pastor Del