the beautiful irony of intercessory prayer
- Filed under: Christianity, Jesus, church, church planting, community, cross, mercyview, prayer
- Date: Jul 16,2010
A Christian community either lives by the intercessory prayers of its members for one another, or the community will be destroyed. I can no longer condemn or hate other Christians for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble they cause me. In intercessory prayer the face that may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed into the face of one for whom Christ died, the face of a pardoned sinner. That is a blessed discovery for the Christian who is beginning to offer intercessory prayer for others. As far as we are concerned, there is no dislike, no personal tension, no disunity or strife, that cannot be overcome by intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the community must enter every day.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer from Life Together
This past Sunday at mercyview lab #3, we began to practice the rhythm of intercessory prayer – praying for one another’s needs and rejoicing in each other praises.
As we were praying, I realized something very beautiful was happening.
–A single man praying for a husband who is having marital tension
–A couple who can’t have children praying for the upcoming birth of a new child for another couple
–A man that travels two hours to come to the “labs” praying for a young man who will be traveling to and from Tulsa to Little Rock over the next couple of weeks
–A man who is expecting the birth of their new child praying for a couple who is grieving the loss of a dear friend
Do you notice the beautiful irony?
There were many prayers of paradox Sunday night – prayers in which personal need or desire was set aside to pray for the benefit of another.
As I listened to the group pray for one another, I realized this is one of the primary ways in which God builds His church, His community of faith – through intercessory prayer. It is what begins to knit a people together beyond surface conversations about the weather and sports. It is an emptying of self and a filling of healthy dependency on another.
Where do we find the motivation to do this? Jesus.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:5-8
And this emptying led to a death on the cross that found its validation in an empty tomb. Again, beautiful irony.
In the picture of an empty tomb we see man given the opportunity to trade worldly emptiness to be filled with the Gospel. And this is what propels us to pray for others in spite of ourselves.
Let us be Christians; let us have expanded souls and minds that can feel for others. Let us weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them that rejoice; and as a Church and as private persons, we shall find the Lord will turn [from] our captivity when we pray for our friends. God help us to plead for others!
