Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual
and the community must enter every day.
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
and the community must enter every day.
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Before You Ask
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)
Many people think their prayers won’t work if they don’t utter them clearly enough, or fail to explain to God exactly what they mean, or don’t speak loudly enough to him with sufficient earnestness. But when this happens, prayer becomes so exaggerated that our Savior even forbids it.
Obviously Jesus does not want to discourage us from praying. His point is that when we pray we must have a sense of proportion. Once we have prayed, we must be quiet. We need to be like the farmer who has sown his seed. Help will come only when you are quiet in faith. Also in your sickness or with other needs, learn to be still and look to the Kingdom of God.
We can share our needs with the Father in a few words, without making a fuss, and rest assured that God already knows what we need and what he will do to help us. We don’t have to explain our requests in great detail to God, or try and make quite sure that he knows our needs. God knows about even the smallest matters and takes them straight into his heart. We can turn to him by glancing Heavenward, with no words at all. We can do this even when we pray about something concrete and tangible, or about something that specifically troubles us. We may realize that what we thought we needed is actually not necessary and that we can find a way right in the midst of how things are now.
This doesn’t mean that we just let things happen – as if everything will come of its own accord without our longing for it. Nor should we just cast a brief and hurried request at God’s feet. When this happens, we too easily lose sight of God, assume that everything comes to us without his help, and we forget to thank him. Then we cease to have a believing heart and are consequently not true children of God.
Jesus said, “Before you ask him.” Therefore we do need to make our requests known to him, otherwise many things will not be given that could have been given. It never displeases God when we come to him with our heartfelt requests. A real child asks for everything, knowing God has an ear for him. We should bring all our burdens and needs to him, for at the very least this helps to make us ever more aware that in all things God is the giver.
God always has our interest in mind. He carries our various needs with fatherly concern, eagerly waiting for us to come to him. He has not forgotten us. And when we feel tempted to think so, then all the more we should remember that he knows it all and cares for us. In fact, he knows much more about us and our needs than we do. Simple, childlike prayer is enough to move his heart, give you something out of the fullness of his compassion, and save you from all sorts of fear and trouble.
(Johann Christoph Blumhardt)
(The God Who Heals, Words of Hope for a Time of Sickness)
Request a prayer and pray for others
To request a prayer, click on the blue button below that reads, Share Your Prayer Request.
To pray for others, look below the form to see what prayers have been requested.
You may add your prayer request to this prayer wall using the form below. Once your prayer request is received, I will share it according to your instructions. Feel free to submit as many prayer requests as you like!
Julia
A Prayer for the Truth About Family Border Separation
Please pray that the truth of this media frenzy will be revealed in its entirety to our citizens.
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.
(Proverbs 10:9)
Trump is only enforcing the law and his only choice is to separate illegal alien families. Asylum seekers not breaking the law are not being separated.
(Intercessors For America)
Received: June 20, 2018
Julia
God Bless America
Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. (Psalm 105:1)
I praise you, Lord, thanking you for this great nation. You have blessed America! Thank you for peace. Thank you for the freedom to speak and be heard and to vote for our leaders. We are a nation of diverse and independent people, Lord, and I pray we would respect each other. Help us to uphold Godly values as we seek to honor the authority of those who govern our land. Please keep the United States united – as one strong country that seeks your face and favor. Amen.
(Jackie M. Johnson)
Received: June 20, 2018
Julia
The Ndau of Mozambique
Working among the Ndau we see on a daily basis how Satan is controlling them by fear, rites and rituals, and ceremonies. No freedom. We pray for this bondage to be broken and folks to have freedom in Christ. Jesus came so that we could be free. Pray for the Holy Spirit to move mightily among them.
(Pray Africa)
Received: June 19, 2018
Julia
Pray For Japan
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck the Kansai region of Japan on Monday, killing at least four people and injuring more than 300 people. Nine-year-old Rina Miyake was walking to school when a concrete wall surrounding a swimming pool fell on her. It was a heart-breaking reminder that Japan is not only vulnerable to earthquakes but also millions of its people have not heard the Gospel and are passing from this life into an eternity without God.
Please also join together in praying for the victims of the earthquake and their families. Amen.
(Anglicans Ablaze)
Received: June 19, 2018
Julia
Critical Prayer Requests for International Justice Mission
Prayer for Love
Ask God to give IJM staff a great love for one another, for the victims that they serve, and for those they comfort.
Prayer for Perseverance
Ask God to bless IJM staff with perseverance to seek justice and community transformation in the face of oppression, indifference, and corruption.
Prayer for Protection
Ask God to protect IJM staff, their families, and the victims of injustice from physical harm and spiritual attack.
Received: June 19, 2018
Julia
TANZANIA
“I can’t imagine feeling that way in the UK,” writes Stephen Hatch about the day it started to rain at St. John’s Seminary where he teaches. “I couldn’t help grinning when it started raining, as I knew how much it was needed. An hour later it was still raining and beginning to come into the house (the veranda had some drainage issues). I was still grinning as I found mops and began cleaning. Another hour later we had all finished bailing out the rain with buckets and the rain began to ease, but I was still grinning and was still happy. Pray that steady rain will continue.”
(Church Mission Society)
Received: June 19, 2018
Julia
Look upon us, O Lord,
and let all the darkness of our souls
vanish before the beams of thy brightness.
Fill us with holy love,
and open to us the treasures of thy wisdom.
All our desire is known unto thee,
therefore perfect what thou hast begun,
and what thy Spirit has awakened us to ask in prayer.
We seek thy face,
turn thy face unto us and show us thy glory.
Then shall our longing be satisfied,
and our peace shall be perfect.
(Augustine)
Received: June 19, 2018
Edmund Krzeminski
[We read] In the King James Bible, Ezekiel 22:30: "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none."
O God, please help us and teach us to build a wall [of prayer] around the USA, Canada, Poland and Great Britain. Are you ready to stand in the gap, where God is the Helper and Teacher?
Please pray that Great Britain, Poland, the USA/Canada would overcome for: (The Acts 26.18).
* Poland, pray for freedom from dead religion to saving faith of Jesus Christ as the Saviour and the Lord by faith only,
* the Church in the USA & Canada & Great Britain – Pray for repentance and cleansing of the church - Matt. 3.12 "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
* my family:
1. Stir up the hearts of my family for ministry for me, my wife Dorothy, our daughter Ann, and our sons Peter and Daniel - "..but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24.15
2. Pray for God's will, wisdom, discernment, revelation and recognition for me and my family; I ask God for Edmund’s work situation, God's direction for Edmund , Dorothy, Peter, Daniel and Ann (also God's protection over the company where she works),
3. God's order in my work. I ask God for great wisdom at my work. Blessings and the knowledge of Jesus Christ for my bosses. Thank God for the continuation of my work.
Edmund & Dorothy Krzeminski
Received: June 18, 2018
Julia
Prayer For Protection of People in San Francisco
Christ, light of light, brightness indescribable, the Wisdom, power and glory of God, the Word made flesh: you overcame the forces of Satan, redeemed the world, then ascended again to the Father. Grant us, we pray, in this tarnished world, the shining of your splendor. Send your Archangel Michael to defend San Francisco from all its growing dangers, to guard the people going out of the city and coming into it, and to bring all concerned safely to your presence, where you reign in the one holy and undivided Trinity, to ages of ages. Amen.
(Grace Cathedral, adapted)
Received: June 18, 2018
Julia
A Prayer for Truth from St. Bernard of Clairvaux
High and Holy God, give me this day a word of truth to silence the lies that would devour my soul and kind encouragements to strengthen me when I fall.
Gracious One, I come quietly to your door needing to receive from your hands the nourishment that gives life.
Amen and Amen.