About Intercessory Prayer

This question was asked on a list in which I participate:

> What is an intercessory prayer of great faith? Is it
> expecting in faith that persistence will pay off and
> God will grant the requested favor? (at least some of
> the time?) Is it to gain serenity and peace in
> accepting that God's will be done? Something else?


I think any intercessory prayer is a prayer of faith. I don't have any
idea if my prayers have any effect... on God, or on the situation I
pray about. We can't know, I think, what our prayers mean to the
Godhead.

I relate it in my mind to a distinction I reached a while back
between "healing' and "curing". As in, while I have not been cured of
Major Depressive Disorder and may never be, I believe I have been
healed to a significant extent with an even more significant extent to
go. But I still have the brain disorder.

One thing I think we have to remember always in any discussion on
prayer is that God does not experience time. We need linear time:
beginning, middle and end. We experience the passage of time with a
past, present and future. As best I can put it, God lives in an
eternal present. No beginning, middle or end. No past, present and
future. Only now. Of course, Jesus, God Incarnate, did experience
linear time.

IMO when we ask questions like do our prayers cause God to grant the
prayer, we are thinking linearly. We ask in the present, hoping to
see a change in the future. We might think of our prayers as having
cause and effect. However, cause and effect rely on the concept of
linear time.

As I understand it, to God in His eternal now, there is no time
before, during or after the prayer. So our prayers cannot be the
cause that has an effect. In other words, I dont believe that our
prayer changes God's mind, or anything like that.

Yes, I know the parable of the importunate person who beseeched God
over and over again and Jesus commended that person, saying that
beseeching God like that, over and over again, would have effect. But
I don't think the parable says that it would have an effect upon God.
I think it means that the parable will have an effect upon the ones
who pray and the community in which they pray.

I believe that prayer changes us. It changes us because we pray and
because we are prayed for. A community that faithfully prays together
and for each other, is a community that is most going to be known for
the love we have for each other.

The mountain that is moved when we pray, is the heart of stone within each of us.

Such is my belief.




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May the Holy Spirit dance in your heart!