Intercession
In greek class Derek went on a bit of a ramble about intercessory prayer, it came from Acts 1:14 and how the disciples all went to pray together with the women etc…
He ended up talking about a small order of nuns south of Dublin who would pray for him and his church often when they found they really needed the prayer.
He told us about the chat he’d had with one of them about how they became a nun…
She had been working as an educational psychologist and towards the end of her career (she was early 50’s) she began to feel god calling her more to prayer and an increasing desire to pray. She would find herself rushing home from work to get on her knees and that even cooking her dinner and so on seemed like they were eating into her prayer time. So she took early retirement and joined this closed order of nuns. Her and 10 others would pray for a total of 6 hours each day and worship for 2. Which may seem a bit excessive or ridiculous to us, locking yourself away to pray, and had I been asked without thought I would have thought the same. But looking at just this one womans perspective, she joined the order in order to fill her desire to intercede for others.
Derek then went on to talk about people who don’t realise that it is their gift to intercede. The kind of people who feel burned up by watching the news feel burned up about the state of the world and can’t seem to shake it, where the rest of us seem to be able to watch without flinching or blinking an eye.
It made me think, sometimes there are times I feel that way, and surely enough the only way to shake the feeling is to pray. But it is fairly occasional.
It did however get me to thinking about this gift and those who posess it, people who have a desire for prayer, and probably quite often don’t even realise they do. When we come across Christians who feel this way, have this yearning but don’t know why, do we realise? Do we help and point them towards prayer?
Also, do we try to force ourselves to be these people? Sure prayer is an important part of the Christian life and we do need to focus ourselves and do it. But sometimes I think we make each other guilty about not praying enough. About not having that aforementioned desire often enough. But ultimately is it God giving us that desire? Is it more frequent for some than others? Is it linked into our spiritual giftings?
