Wow! What a picture!
When I first saw this picture I was very moved. Nothing else comes close to emphasizing the importance of prayer in our lives than by looking to very One who demonstrates perfect intercessory prayer. Hebrews 7:23-25 (NLT) and Romans 8:34 state that our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, lives forever to intercede with God on our behalf and the picture above displays this in a very concrete and moving way.
What an extraordinary example we have in Jesus Christ, and as Christians we are to be asking ourselves on a daily basis, "What Would Jesus Do?" At times, we may feel unsure about what that looks like, but as always, the scripture can and should be our guide in answering this question.
Today, I want the question of "What Would Jesus Do?" focused on the Who, What, When, Where and Why of prayer. We will find our answers together, through God's wonderful Word.
The Who of prayer:
"I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.
1 Timothy 2:1-6
The What of prayer:
The important thing to realize when you pray for others is that you do not need to make it eloquent or feel that you have to find the exact phrasing or words. As stated below, God knows what is in our hearts and He provides the Holy Spirit to pray for us and through us. The important thing is that we strive to keep a constant dialogue between ourselves and God and allow the Holy Spirit to pray for us and through us on a consistent basis.
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God."
Romans 8:26,27
All throughout God's Word we are given guidance on what to pray for others, such as strength and knowledge of God's Word and love (Ephesians 3:16-19), wisdom and power (Ephesians 1:18-20), peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7), spiritual understanding (Colossians 1:9), boldness (Philemon 1:6), discernment (Philippians 1:9-11), and the list could go on and on.
(FYI: You can click on the words listed in the previous paragraph, in order to read the correlating scripture.)
It's important to note, as we see from these scriptures, we can look to how the writers of the New Testament would open and close their letters as an example for how we can pray for those around us.
STAY TUNED: Tomorrow I will be posting about the When, Where and Why of prayer!
*Scriptures are taken from the NIV unless otherwise indicated*
2 comments:
I find it interesting that as we study the prayers of Scripture, we don't see prayer requests for "good health" or "positive test results" like we might hear in a prayer meeting at church {though those are often valid requests}. Instead, we see prayers for spiritual health and growth. Why aren't we requesting more prayer for these areas of our lives?!?
Thanks for sharing your post!!
Ashley - I completely agree with you! Those type of prayer requests should be presented more often in our churches.
Thank you for commenting! I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and comment!
Blessings
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