Jesus teaches us the Prayer of Intercession at Pentecost. He was ascending, told the disciples they would not be left alone. That the Father had promised to send the Holy Spirit upon them. He interceded on our behalf.
What is a Prayer of Intercession? In his book “Prayer”, Richard J. Foster
defines it this way: “If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more
than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer. Intercession is a way of loving others.” This is the prayer of intercession from the
human point of view. When Jesus prays, it happens. Yet He prays this prayer to teach us how to pray in our
turn.
The result is the cornerstone of our ministry of prayer in
our church. In each worship service, the
pastoral prayer is when we pray for God’s intercession in the things of life
that we lift to Him. There are prayer request
cards in our pews for that purpose, multiple opportunities to deliver those
prayer cards into our hands. In the News
of Heaven and Earth in our bulletins each week is the ongoing prayer list for our
congregation. I am hooked into a group of
a dozen and a half to share texts for ‘real time’ prayers where there is need.
We pray as Jesus teaches us to pray. That’s the whole point of the Lord’s Prayer,
the Our Father. The disciples asked Him
to teach them to pray. Now we pray that
one more than any other prayer in Christendom.
That Christ Prays For Us also concludes Our Story across the
annual Church Calendar. This is our
Story since Christ the King Sunday in November:
Our Story (Capital “S”)
Jesus was born for us; Jesus was baptized for us; Jesus
lived for us; Jesus died for us; Jesus arose for us; Jesus ascended for us;
Jesus prayed for us.
We use the past tense to mark these as events that have
happened in history. But as Our Story
unfolds, we mark them in the present tense because Jesus’ work in us and
through us is ongoing.
We pray for God’s intercession because we know it
works. These proofs are not simply in
the prayers answered in our own lives. These
proofs begin in Scripture, where Jesus Himself offers us this prayer when he
talks to the disciples about His coming ascension, “I will not leave you
orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see
me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” (John 14: 18-19)
Notice the difference?
When we pray for intercession, we ask Jesus to step in. When Jesus prays for intercession, it is a
done deal. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Pastor Peter
No comments:
Post a Comment