Prayer is a fascinating thing. Books have been written on the topic, sermons lengthened to outrageously long "mini series"covering it; even seminars developed to teach us specifically how to accomplish it. I will never forget a speaker once saying that he was so intimidated by prayer that he only prayed what was written in the Book Common of Prayer...I guess he was relying on ones he thought that might get it "right".
I think many of us would do well to look no farther than the company of a child to learn how God really wants us to pray. When a child utters words to God there is no agenda, there is no detailed thought put into how it will sound, and there is no lack of faith that what they relay to God, He can accomplish. Another thing that I love about the way children pray is how they do not limit their prayers to themselves. Before bed each night my daughters and I cover almost every need we know of whether it's someone at church or the broken leg of a stuffed dog toy. Somehow as we get older we lose this...the vital necessity of lifting up the burdens of others to Almighty God...and people around us suffer for it.
You see I don't believe in the "gift of intercessory prayer". I'm sure my words seem almost blasphemous, but before you gasp and turn your computer off, hear me out. While I think some people have a gift of discernment and can intercede for others with great detail, I think we have used this label to give ourselves a way out from taking the time to pray for others. We utter a few rushed requests about our own lives and throw maybe one word of gratitude at the end of it while leaving the hard work of praying for others to the ones with the right gifting or those who "have time" to do that. Ah friends...the lies we buy are a disgrace.
None of us have to look very far to see people around us who need our prayers. And I'm sure almost every one of us can give an example of a time when we knew people were lifting us up...and it brought more comfort than we can express. I guess praying for others is truly a gift...not one we're born with, but one that we can give someone else at any time. When we bend our knee before our Heavenly Father and ask for grace not for ourselves, but for someone else; we give the gift of selfless love. What a beautiful offering.
Will you join me in giving this beautiful offering this week?
Here's the person I am going to pray for
Ahmed Ali Jimale was a businessman, teacher, medical consultant, and underground Christian. He also ran a pharmacy in Somalia and taught first aid classes. He partnered with NGO's and aid organizations to help the needy. In his classes he taught the Bible and the Qur'an and highlighted the differences between the two. Over time he grew more and more bold in presenting the Gospel. In 2012 he began receiving threatening messages like this
"We've been monitoring your activities. You have to stop introducing the children to foreign Christian religion as well as your close relation with foreign organizations, otherwise we shall come for your head."
The succeeded and on February 18, Ahmed was martyred for his faith in Jesus. Please join me in praying for his wife and four children
Thank for reading
Information on Ahmed came from http://smyrnaministries.org/
