Do we pray for folks in trouble to get God’s attention or do we pray so that we are in tune with what already has God’s attention?
When I meet with men and women who believe they or their particular situation is “hopeless” I know the first thing I have to do is intercede on their behalf—not to bring them to God’s attention, but to bring them to my attention (which I know from experience, sometimes has the staying power of a fruit fly).
I pray God will break through the hopelessness and show them the possibility that their situation can be different—that they can be different—even if all other things remain the same.
I believe in miracles. I know God can heal whatever is broken. And a crisis is fertile ground for a miracle. After all—every miracle started off as a problem for somebody.
However, a miracle does not mean that God gives what we (with our limited knowledge) ask. The miracle happens when God brings about what God intends.
Walter Wink said “history belongs to the Intercessors.” I believe he was right. Intercession is a form of spiritual defiance of what we ordinarily expect in a situation. Intercession envisions an alternative future and infuses the present with what “will be” when “what is” is heavy, destructive and suffocating.
Intercession always begins in the heart of the one who prays on behalf of another. It is the ultimate gift of hospitality. Intercession can be the midwife birthing God’s healing hope for the one who is hopeless.
However, the one who intercedes has to make room in her own heart for suffering before she can intercede. I am convinced and convicted that as a young minister there were times I said all the right words, but skipped over this “intercession” part.
I did not always take on the suffering of the people for whom I prayed. Perhaps I was too cavalier about the significant role of prayer in real life situations. Perhaps I was afraid to make myself vulnerable in that way. Perhaps I thought lip service was enough, when what was really needed was the courage and perseverance to stand with someone in the midst of their pain.
Intercession, by its very nature is not comfortable—-it has a price. Which is why it is so precious to those in crisis.
I have come to believe that prayer is not so much something we do, but what God does to us. Prayer always changes us. Our prayers connect us to what God is already doing to bring about salvation to even the most dire situations. And—when we get so connected to what God is already doing, it allows us to be the hands and feet and face of Christ to those who suffer.
Our prayers of intercession call us to action and the result, said William Temple (best known for his 1942 book Christianity and Social Order) is that our prayers increase the capacity for God’s love in the world.
Joy Sylvester-Johnson
