Friday, August 23, 2013

I came across John 17:20-26 in my reading last year sometime.  I had decided that I would read the entire Bible in 3 months, and though I didn't manage it in 3 months, I did get through it within a year.  I don't think I had ever realized that Jesus prayed for us while He was here on earth before and the fact that He did was really special to me.  Jesus intercedes for us with the Father and He wants us to be unified with Him and each other.  I am so blessed that my Saviour loved me enough to pray for me.
Nehemiah also prayed an intercessory prayer in the very first chapter of his book.  Our church was studying Nehemiah a few months ago and the main theme that carried throughout the entire study was that Nehemiah was all in.  He was completely committed to doing God's will and he wasn't distracted by the antics going on with the people who were trying to pass themselves off as part of the Israelite nation when really, they were posers.  He interceded for his people with God and then He set to work to build the walls that needed to be built to bring the people back to right relationship with the Father.
Sometimes it is important to intercede for other people when we are praying.  We see that someone is in need of that intercessory prayer and we take the time out to pray for them.  Those prayers are powerful and will build our faith and the faith of those we are interceding for.  If Jesus intercedes for us, we can certainly intercede for our fellow believers when we realize a need.
-Meg

"12Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying" Romans 12:12

What I learned:

-to intercede is to pray on behalf of another person.

-I often intercede in prayer for people who are not even aware that I am doing it, I pray for family, friends, classmates, and often people I don't even know.

-One of my most recent memories of when I interceded in prayer for someone I don't know is when me and my friend Dusty were heading back to school after a weekend home and we saw a car accident, we stopped and prayed for the people in the car and then also prayed for others who were also driving down that road.

-we have the ability to pray for others and we should. Jesus did it all the time, we should follow his example.

-I challenge you if your reading this to follow Christ's lead a pray for others.

-Tiff