Have you ever wondered how many people have prayed for you in your lifetime? Aside from a few obvious individuals, like parents or grandparents, the number gets blurry with all the possibilities. And the majority likely are unknown, people you’ve just casually met, people who’ve listened to your journey, others who’ve heard of you and chosen to add you to their prayer list, and so on.
Then, how many people have you prayed for in your lifetime? If you’re like me, you can’t remember them all! Some are those who’ve asked for prayer for something specific, others who asked for generalized prayer (you know, those unspoken requests), and those we’ve been moved to pray for at the Spirit’s prompting. Other prayers may have been one-off blessings for someone we’ve observed, and for whom there’s been an urge to ask the Father to touch, heal, restore, encourage, etc.
What’s super exciting is that Jesus is one who prayed for you and me. In his high priestly prayer of John 17, he prays this: “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. . .”v. 20, NLT. We have all believed in Jesus through the message of the original disciples, so we are those for whom Jesus himself interceded! But wait, there’s more! Paul says in Romans 8:34: “. . . Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.” Imagine! The prayers of Jesus and the collective prayers of his original disciples were the first seeds and the first waterings of a very special harvest – our soul’s salvation!
Prayers, then, those prayed by Jesus, those prayed by the disciples, and the ones prayed by us, are kind of like eternal flames before the throne of God, always dynamic, never flickering, blessing God, blessing us, and blessing others. We’ve been chosen as glorifiers of the Father. Our prayers, sometimes awkward, sometimes messy, sometimes spoken in desperation or anger, do that very thing. Incredible! Looking forward to seeing all you God-glorifying pray-ers tomorrow at 10 AM, 3 PM, UK. PD
Don graduated from Regent University in 1988 and moved to France for seven years, coming back to the US briefly to marry Sue in 1990. The work in France included working in a Christian School and helping plant a church before returning in 1995. He’s been pastor of Peninsula Vineyard since 1999. He enjoys counseling, especially married couples, traveling back to France (with Sue), reading, doing Sudoku puzzles and sleuthing out good, dark chocolate. Don serves as the senior pastor of the Vineyard Church Peninsula, in Newport News, Virginia.