Intercession: The Art of Delivering Babies

Part two of a two-part series on good intentions gone horribly awry:

There is perhaps no instance in which one can feel less helpful than when someone very dear to oneself is hurting or experiencing loss. Our sunday-school solution is to pray, but how often is that prayer meant as a quick cure-all, intended merely to cheer someone up because we hate to see them hurting?

Only minutes after committing this exact crime against my lovely Manicotti (another food nickname you can expect to be seeing a lot of, dear reader), God struck me with this little gem from Mr Oswald Chambers:

"Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way, God is going to touch the whole world with His saints"

Imagine you are a father-to-be. Your pregnant wife goes into labour, and you wish more than anything that you could take her pain from her. This person you love so tellement much is in inexplicable pain, and you feel absolutely helpless.

Impulsive prayer would be the equivalent of stuffing her full of Tylenol and waiting around to catch the baby.

Intercession, however, is driving her to the hospital, helping her up the steps, and handing her over to the doctor. It is being humble enough to say "I haven't the slightest clue how to administer an epidural, but I will help you get to the person who does".


*the italicized bit is, again, an excerpt from My Utmost for his Highest. If you haven't gotten the idea yet, it's a dang good book, so go buy it!