Intercessory Prayer..Our involvement in the "other" - Originally posted August 2007

As I read what the saints have written about intercessory prayer, I realize that questions and reflections about prayer have been with us as long as human beings have uttered prayers to God.

I am beginning to understand that by praying for others we are drawn into the heart of their situation. Whenever we pray for others we are setting aside our own interests, (our own life) in a sacrificial manner. This is a form of dying…and as our self interest is surrendered we are drawn closer to Christ who is always before us praying fervently for anybody in pain, fear, want or need. Through our prayer which has drawn us closer to Christ, then, we become participants in the other’s life – not a detached bystander who remains on the sidelines. (Prayerful support can never be a spectator sport. Intercessory Prayer by its very nature is an activity that engages us and often transforms us. We see situations and people very differently when we pray for them)

Since intercessory prayer is a sacrifice of self interest, it is no wonder that it is such an important part of our worship service, placed immediately before the offering and Holy Communion. As the various intercessions move us through an awareness of the world, the church, our community and neighborhood, we arrive then at the point when we place all that we have uttered into the hands of God. Then, trusting in the peace that is possible through repose in the Lord, we exchange words and gestures to help remind each other of the enduring quality of the peace of Christ that will carry us beyond those 3 or 4 minutes of intercessory prayer.

Often the peace we experience while praying (or when we know we are being held in prayer by others) facilitates our passage through a situation. Once we have experienced that mystery ourselves, we are more likely to be drawn to pray for others – people known or unknown – who are facing the pressures of life, nature, and human domination or injustice of any kind. The medical world reports that physical wellness may be regained or renewed more rapidly in individuals who are prayerful. We see broken relationships and tormented minds move towards wholeness and reconciliation when the people involved pray and are held in prayer by others.

We are all called to prayer. Some of us experience that call as a nudge to participate in a group – the pray-ers – that is often described as a prayer chain or a prayer circle. Others keep copies of the congregational prayer list and hold the names in prayer throughout the week. Some of us maintain prayer journals where we record our intercessions and, perhaps, our observations about the situations for which we are praying.

It does not matter that we don’t know precisely how the power of prayer works – what is important is that we know that it works in miraculous ways that heal the mind, heart and soul.