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God's Words For US
by Cecelia Lester
What do we mean by intercession? When we pray for others, we go before the Lord on their behalf. This is intercession. The one who prays feels a burden to take others before Jesus; then He takes those needs before the Father.
A prayer warrior senses a need someone has and commits to pray for that person. Sometimes the prayer is said right then. Other times, the one praying will wait and include that request in their nightly prayers.
Jesus interceded for his disciples and for us in John 17:6-19,20-25. “He prays for protection for his disciples. They will need to be protected from a hostile world and a malevolent Satan. Jesus dedicates himself to the sanctification of those he has set apart for ministry.1
“Jesus also prays for believers throughout the ages. The focus of his prayer is that believers might be ‘brought’ to complete unity’ so the world will know who Christ is.”2
In the days since Jesus Christ returned to His heavenly home, we have the Holy Spirit interceding for us. “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 with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches the heart knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” (Romans 8:26-27)
As we read the daily newspaper, we see accounts of tragic events–automobile accidents, shootings, women being violated, children being abused; we see obituaries of people who leave families behind. Have you ever prayed for those who suffered the loss of their loved one?
When a prayer warrior hears of a need, he or she can immediately go before the Lord with that request. When we read about a less than pleasant experience in the newspaper, we can take that issue to Jesus without anyone else being aware of it. We can do the same thing with anything that bothers us that we would see on the television news.
We should intercede for those who work for our national government and all those who have been hurt by the shutdown. This action has caused problems for a town in North Carolina that lies in part inside the Smoky Mountains National Park. The main roads are closed and the school busses can’t run on the secondary roads. The schools have asked the parents to find alternate transportation to get their children to school.
*The Discovery Study Bible © 2004 by The Zondervan Corporation p. 1424
** Op Cit. page 1424
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Cecelia Lester has been serious about her writing for over two decades..
She composes Christian essays and posts them to her blog quietspirit-followingmyking.blogspot.com/
She has served in a faith-based organization, Grace In Action by writing two newsletters and searching for possible grants.
In July 2017, she published her first book, 'Times of Trouble Bring Rays of Joy.'
She and her husband of 54 years live in central Indiana. They have one grown son.
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