INTERCESSION – LISTS FROM OTHERS

          I mentioned in an earlier blog that I include in my daily lists the prayer request lists that friends send to me for their ministries.  One of these lists contains the prayer requests that I receive from The Salvation Army’s Social Justice Commission.  This international commission was set up in New York about four years ago.  It has significant links with different operations of the United Nations.  The goal is to help The Salvation Army become more aware of the role that it can play in social justice in the world.  At the same time, it is a means whereby The Salvation Army can offer in an official manner its gifts to others for the purpose of social justice activities.  The first person that was responsible for the operation of this Commission was Commissioner Christine MacMillan and she was my friend and former boss.  I offered to help her set up her prayer support team when she began in this function, but she has since been able to develop a helpful and informative prayer newsletter that she sends out monthly or bi-monthly and I am fortunate to be one of the recipients of this letter.  It keeps alive my own passion for social justice, as I pray daily for the concerns that she brings to our attention.            

         Since Glen and I served for nearly thirty years as officers of The Salvation Army, we receive regular communications from the person at our National Office who sends out information to those who are no longer in active service.  Sometimes, one of the “retirees” will send her a prayer request and she will circulate it to the rest of us.  One of my daily acute requests is one of these.  It came from friends of ours and concerns her niece and husband, who both have serious health issues and are the parents of two little boys.  Our friend has spent some time with the family to help them out, during a month when both parents had to undergo surgery.  I am going to e-mail my friend in the next couple of days to ask her for an update on the situation for this family, so I can continue to pray intelligently for them.

          Another of the lists that comes to me by e-mail from the national office of The Salvation Army is the list of prayer requests that are prepared each month for the Canada and Bermuda Territory of The Salvation Army.  This Salvation Army global region governs our area.  At one time in my career with The Salvation Army, I was responsible for the preparation and distribution of this list, so I have some idea of what is involved in that.  The requests are now listed by week, rather than by day, so I am able to remember one of them each day in my prayer time.  Also, this month, the person who is currently responsible for preparing and distributing the list sent us a link with the National House of Prayer in Ottawa.  Going to the place on their website, she suggested, I found a list of prayer requests from the Christian Legal Fellowship of Canada.  They feel the outcomes of certain cases will shape the future of our country in significant ways, so request prayer for these particular cases. These I have added to my list.

            Since I know that there are people from many parts of the world who are reading this blog, but I have not had many responses to the blog, I am going to offer an incentive. I am going to put the names of all those who respond to the blog, in a hat and once a month, I will pick a name and send that person a copy of my book, More Questions than Answers, Sharing Faith by Listening. In this way, we will be able to make the blog more interactive. 

I will look for your comments. 

Sharing in the Ministry of Others

Some of the people that I support with prayer are those whom I also support financially.  One of the joys of having a regular income is being able to donate to those who depend upon the resources of others for the ministry that they are doing.  When I am able to make my regular monthly donation, I feel like I have a part in the good work that they are doing. That is why I am so grateful when they keep me up-to-date on their activities.  Just today, in the mail, I received the monthly newsletter of the person whose name prompted this blog.  As well as filling me in on her activities, she also lists particular prayer requests that she has and gives the dates and different activities in which she is involved.  These all enable me to pray more intelligently for her and for her ministry.

My daughter is expecting her first baby, our first grandchild.  Since she had some difficulty about conception, I have been praying daily for Elizabeth and for the baby she is carrying.  I have wanted a grandchild for a long time and been envious of my friends, as I have watched their joy in sharing in the lives of their children’s children.  Now I am so exciting about this new addition coming into our family.  I know it is going to create a significant change in the life of our daughter and her husband, and I know that they are going to discover of depth of love that they never could have imagined exists, as this little one enters their lives.  For that reason, I feel that every day I need to pray for both the parents and the child who is growing within the body of daughter.  Already, her approaching responsibilities as a mother have been drawing Elizabeth and I closer to each other.  As I pray for the child and the pregnancy, I am aware that I need prayer for myself as well, that I will have wisdom not to try to impose what I have learned about parenting on my daughter and son-in-law, unless they ask my advice.  I need to let her learn the best way to do things herself.  The world in which she will be raising her children is not the world in which I raised mine.  Nor did I do everything right.  I am sure that there will be things that I can learn from her, if I am willing. 

I pray for another rather unique group of people.  A Christian organization in our city, twice each year sends some of the workers to the spring and fall psychic fairs that take place here.  They do not go to dabble in the occult.  What they do is meet with people to present another alternative.  The Truth they offer is what many people are looking for.  With the concern expressed in listening to people and praying for them, at each fair, a number of people decide to become Christians.  Along with meeting the visitors to the psychic fair, praying with them and if they are willing, introducing them to Christ, the organization also prepares a list of the first names and a little information about each one.  This they send out to the organization’s prayer supporters.  When I receive the names of the individuals I begin to pray through the list focusing on one name every day.  I think this kind of prayer support is crucial for those who are often brand new to the faith.  The organization is also faithful in following up by personal contact with these new believers, if they agree, so it is not just a one shot deal.  Again, I find great joy in participating in a ministry that I might not feel particularly suited to do myself, but can support by my prayers. 

The Practice of Intercession

Now that I have told you about all of the tools that I use for my intercession, you may be wondering how I proceed. What are the things that I talk to the Lord about in this time when I arise and settle down on the couch in the den with my lap desk? I am usually accompanied by our cat, Belle who initially jumps up on the lap desk to see what I am going to do and when she finds that it is not that interesting to her, she moves over to the chair at the desk and curls up there to wait until I have finished.

The order of the topics I cover has no particular significance and changes frequently. I mentioned earlier that I begin with the large folder of current topics for prayer that are most urgent, as well as the lists of requests. These days the first topic is our personal prayer requests. If you have read my book, More Questions than Answers, Sharing Faith by Listening, you may remember that when we were responsible for the work of The Salvation Army in France, a decade ago, we faced some significant challenges in our ministry. It became clear to us that we needed additional prayer support, so I organized our prayer support team. That was when we started the prayer team. These people pray for us on a regular basis. We prepare and send out our prayer newsletter to them every month, outlining the specific needs that we have in our ministries and in our lives. The prayer support team really proved its worth at the time of our son’s accident, eight years ago. A traffic accident when the vehicle he was driving hit black ice on the highway in northern Vermont left him a quadriplegic.

As well as asking others to remember our prayer requests, I also pray through the list myself, praying for one request each day. Since there are seven prayer topics in the list, I can cover them four times each month.

Praying about the concerns that we have also reminds me to pray for those who are part of our prayer network. I have listed all of them by name and the second list in my folder is the names of all the members of our prayer support team. I pray for a different person or couple each morning. Since the list is quite long, it takes me a while to work through the list. Some of the names also appear on other lists in my folders for various other reasons. We will eventually come to those.

The third page in my current acute prayer list is the name of a little boy, whose parents are part of our congregation. He has been having seizures and there are still a lot of questions about what is causing these and how to treat them. His father is the one who does the translation from English into Spanish for those who come to worship with us but are still learning the English language. This is their first child and they are worried about this health concern of their little boy.

As we continue this journey of intercession, I will share with you some of the other concerns that occupy this valuable part of my day.

The How of Intercession

In my last blog, I promised to tell you about the method that I use to determine the appropriate Scriptures for a person on my prayer list. For several years now I have been doing what I call “praying the Scriptures.” What I mean by that is that I read the Bible as I pray. I read each sentence and if I feel that sentence is particularly appropriate for the person I am praying for, I will note the Scripture reference beside the date. Sometimes I will have the opportunity to share these Scriptures with the person for whom I have prayed. When I do so, it is an encouragement to them. I keep these lists and I hope one day to be able to share verses with many more people for whom I have prayed.

These various lists make up the contents of the right pocket of my lap desk. On the left side, I keep other material. When I have finished praying for those listed on my intensive care and request lists and my day of the week lists, I then open a book from the left pocket, where I have a three-day rotation list of requests. Thee are people who I have been praying for a long time. Some have ongoing health concerns. Some are those I mentor spiritually. Others are close friends, whom I want to support in their spiritual journey by my prayers.

Tucked inside this book is also a list that I consult daily with three sections. The first is a group of young adults from Africa that I had the privilege of mentoring when I met with them at the African School o Youth Leadership in 2006. I remember one of the four of them each day by name. Another of the lists includes current spiritual leaders (pastors or corps officers as we call them in The Salvation Army) of the congregation that Glen and I attend. I pray for them in rotation with the leaders that preceded them,. I also pray for the leaders of the congregation that Glen and I were part of before we left Toronto to move back to Montreal. I feel that it is important to uphold those in spiritual leadership. The final list tucked inside the book is one that includes family members by name. They are also remembered every day.

With this list, my daily prayer requests conclude. However, I have also incorporated into this time a practice of Scripture memorization. I use a book that lists verses of Scripture appropriate for different situations. I repeat a number of these verses daily and write out one verse every day, to try and not only commit them to memory but also think how to put them into practice in my life. As I get older, I find it harder to commit things to memory, so I rely on constant repetition to try and get these thoughts imbedded in my mind.

Finally, I have been trying to learn Spanish, as my current ministry has given me the opportunity to travel to Latin America and I want to be able to communicate with those I meet. I finish my prayer time by reading a devotional from the Spanish version of Our Daily Bread and the appropriate Scripture portion from my Spanish Bible.

I have outlined the activities that constitute my time of intercession. In my next blog, I will walk you through some of the requests, so you can get an idea of the content. Thanks for sharing this journey with me.