Intercession for Those We Do Not Know

With all of the other things that have been going on in my life, my intercession postings have fallen behind, although the intercession continues.  The next three pages of my intensive care prayer concerns are for people whom I have never met.  Those who are close to them have shared a little of their stories with me and I sensed that they needed my prayer support. 

            I found out about Suzanne (not her real name) from her aunt.  We were at a writers’ conference together and as we chatted over lunch one day, we confided something of our own backgrounds.  Suzanne’s aunt herself had quite a remarkable story of transformation and the tears that came to her eyes showed me she cared deeply about this niece.  Suzanne is an orphan.  Both her mother and father are gone and she has been in the care of her stepfather.  Life has sent multiple difficulties her way. Only grace will enable her to learn to enjoy things that many of us take for granted.  Every day I pray for Suzanne and when I see her aunt or exchange e-mails with her from time to time, she is excited to know that Suzanne is still being remembered in my prayers.  I do not know what is in store for Suzanne.  I do know that somehow my prayers are making a difference, even if it just means that they help her not to give up in despair.  Perhaps some day I will learn more of her story or I may never know more than I know now.  That does not matter so much.  What is important is that she is being carried into the presence of the Lord daily, in prayer. 

            Another young woman who struggles with her life situation is Lorraine (not her real name).  She lives in Europe.  Although I have never met her, Glen and I do know her parents.  Lorraine is one of many people who battle clinical depression.  She is married and has children, but when her illness is most acute, she is unable to function in these relationships.  She is dependent on her parents to help her keep going one day at a time.  She has waged this combat for years, sometimes winning and sometimes feeling that she is losing the fight.  My heart went out to her when I heard recently that she was again facing her old enemy, depression.  Glen suggested that I again add her name to my prayer list.  I do not know how my prayers will help Lorraine overcome her depression, yet I believe that somehow power is released in prayer that will enable her to slowly move toward the light.  My prayer is that some day she will be able to again enjoy the love of her family and know that she is loved unconditionally by her Heavenly Father, even when she cannot feel or respond to love.  How thankful I am that I can carry her into the Lord’s presence when she cannot go there in her own strength. 

            Lorraine is not the only person I know who is suffering from clinical depression.  There are others on my critical care prayer list.  They include a young man whom I will call Paul.  Although he is an adult, he is currently not in a relationship and is living with his recently widowed mother.  She was the one who told me his story.  For years, his grandmother prayed faithfully for this young man.  Then, last fall, she died and both mother and son felt the loss acutely.  One of the things they missed the most was her prayers.  Every day she prayed for them. Hearing that, I promised to try to fill that role for them by including them in my prayers.  I hope that some day someone else will come into their lives who can fulfill that role, perhaps someone who lives closer to them.  Their home is two time zones away from where I live.  What would be a real encouragement to me would be for them both to realize that their own prayers for themselves and for each other can be heard by God and answered.  These requests make up some of the things I pray for them, as I offer my prayers each day.  

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 Reasons for Intercession

Since my last blog about intercession, I received an interesting note from one of my friends who lives in France and has been reading the blog. She asked me why it is necessary to continue to pray for the same people many times. Once we have offered our requests to the Lord on their behalf is that not enough?

One of the daily readings that she uses has been speaking about the futility of bringing the same needs to the Lord repeatedly. I do agree that there is no point in just praying the same prayers every day for the same people. I also believe that our situations change from day to day and some folks for whom I pray may not need the prayer too much one day, but the next day they find themselves in a place where they do need that kind of support. I hope to show a little of how that works as we continue to look at some of the prayer concerns that have been presented to me for intercession.

As I move through that first large folder, the next list that I encounter is the list of all of the people who currently make up the congregation of the church that Glen and I attend, The Salvation Army, Montreal Citadel. I note the name of an individual or a couple each day and pray for them. If the Scripture I read as I pray for them seems particularly appropriate for them, I will underline it and have it on record to give them, if an appropriate occasion were to arise. For the first couple of years that I was back in Montreal, I sent a card to each person with the date that I prayed for them as an encouragement to them. Now my days are so full that I find I am not able to do that. I am hoping to find someone in our congregation who has the time and the willingness to take on that task for me.

The next person on my list is someone that I met at a conference in 2006. It was a weekend for Christian women who were in business or in ministry. As we met together, it was clear that the women in ministry outnumbered those in business and it was easy to forget that the world in which business women work is often quite unlike the one in which we carry on our various ministries. This particular woman was quite articulate and as I sensed the challenges that she faces in business, I found that a desire was born in me to try to be a support to her. As we chatted together after one of the workshops, I asked if she would mind if I added her to my prayer list. She was pleased at the suggestion.

Two years later, we found ourselves again at the same conference. This time, she had come because she knew that I was going to be there and she wanted to spend some time together, so she took me out for lunch. It was so good to know that she was grateful for my daily intercession for her. I continue to remember her each day. We are seldom in contact with each other and I know that the Lord is with her and blessing and using her and I have a small part to play in that.

We will continue to consider the names and requests in the next blog. In the meantime, if you have a question that you think I might be able to shed some light on through these conversations, please feel free to contact me. Perhaps you can help me to learn to become a better intercessor. I would be so grateful.

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.