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
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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
Dear Lord, help us to show kindness to all, including the weakest of the weak, the unborn. Let us learn from you, who have never failed to lavish kindness and mercy on all creatures. “With enduring love I take pity on you,” (Isaiah 54:8). Indeed “All the paths of the lord are kindness and constancy” (Psalm 25:10). Kindness is, of course, love in action, so we beg you, dear Lord, to fill us with love. You have told us that the greatest commandment is, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, (Matthew 22:37), and only if we obey that can we truly obey the second, which is, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” (Matthew 22:39).
Today, Lord, we invoke your intercession for the pro-life movement. We pray that all will look upon human life as a great gift from God and be accepted and loved, not an unwanted burden to be destroyed.
We intercede for assistance from Heaven for the efforts of those on earth who have enlisted in the crusade of promoting the dignity and value of all human life, in particular the unborn. This we ask through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
That all doctors and nurses will have the courage to refuse to assist in abortions, we pray to the Lord.
That all doctors will be kept from the temptation to profit by killing unborn children, we pray to the Lord.
That doctors and nurses may remember the lesson of Nuremburg — that killing can never be justified as a medical procedure and that there is no privilege to participate in an atrocity, we pray to the Lord.
That those who escort mothers to have their children killed will be given the wisdom to see that their support of abortion results in the violation and degradation of women and mothers, we pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayers. Amen.
(Archdiocese of Miami)
Received: May 30, 2018
Julia
We pray for all Christians living in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region who are the victims of a violent campaign to eradicate Christianity by Islamist nomadic herdsmen. These attacks have left up to 100 Christians dead this year. An unknown source is funding the military Fulani with sophisticated weapons.
We pray that the suffering that this community faces is relieved through the grace of God and our own efforts, and for emergency provisions to be provided for displaced and refugee families, and for those who have fled to Cameroon. Amen
(Zenit)
Received: May 30, 2018
Julia
Prayer to Free Tommy Robinson
May 25, 2018: He wasn’t just silenced, he was thrown in prison. He will serve 13 months for covering already-made-public cases about Muslim rape gangs in the UK during a “media ban.”
We pray that his life is not taken while incarcerated. If it is, we pray that his martyrdom leads a revolution. Amen.
(Free Tommy Robinson)
Received: May 30, 2018
Julia
Jeanne d'Arc was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431.
A Prayer for the Feast Day of Joan of Arc
Holy God, whose power is made perfect in weakness: we honor thy calling of Jeanne d’Arc, who, though young, rose up in valor to bear thy standard for her country, and endured with grace and fortitude both victory and defeat; and we pray that we, like Jeanne, may bear witness to the truth that is in us to friends and enemies alike, and, encouraged by the companionship of thy saints, give ourselves bravely to the struggle for justice in our time; through Christ our Savior, who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Received: May 30, 2018
Julia
Prayer To The Holy Trinity
I am bending my knee
In the eye of the Father who created me,
In the eye of the Son who purchased me,
In the eye of the Spirit who cleansed me,
In friendship and affection.
Through thine own Anointed One, O God,
Bestow upon us fullness in our need,
Love towards God,
The affection of God,
The smile of God,
The wisdom of God,
The grace of God,
The fear of God,
And the will of God
To do on the world of the Three,
As angels and saints
Do in Heaven;
Each shade and light,
Each day and night,
Each time in kindness,
Give thou us thy Spirit.
Amen.
(The Sun Dances)
Received: May 29, 2018
Chester Albao
Please pray for the healing of my urinary bladder,I am suffering from chronic cystitis.Thanks and God bless!
Received: May 27, 2018
Julia
“God hears ‘amen’ wherever we are.” –Radney M. Foster
We come to you, O Lord, from many places, joining our voices to praise you and to ask for your intercession.
We know you hear us regardless of where we are physically.
• In places where we hope peace is possible: between North and South Korea, between Israel and Palestine, and between the major political parties in many countries.
• In places torn by war, violence, and all manner of human atrocities: Syria, Nigeria, and Afghanistan.
• In places of political unrest: Venezuela, Italy, and China.
• In places preparing for the Atlantic Hurricane season: the Caribbean islands, Mexico, Bermuda, and the United States, especially Puerto Rico.
• In homeless shelters, in refugee camps, in houses of worship, in cities, on farms, and in all those places we call home.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We know You hear us regardless of where we are emotionally:
those grieving and those celebrating,
those marrying and those divorcing,
the baptized and the buried,
those caring for children and for the elderly,
those laboring and those unemployed,
all people at a beginning or an end.
Lord, grant us thy peace.
We know You hear us regardless of where we are spiritually:
during Ramadan, during morning mass, during the Sabbath;
at the beginning of a yoga practice, a labyrinth, a pilgrimage;
at the end of our lullabies;
and in the midst of our doubts.
In a great universal exhale, we say together,
Amen.
(World In Prayer)
Received: May 25, 2018
Julia
Today's Devotional
Colossians 4:14, NLT "Luke, the beloved doctor, sends his greetings, and so does Demas."
Pray that many Saudis who are being trained in the medical profession in Toronto will be used by God to lovingly heal both the body and souls of their patients.
Today's People Group
Mohammed, a confident 21-year-old student from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was happy with the ‘A’ he received from a test he took at York University in Toronto. He had received a scholarship from his country that paid all his expenses. His friend, Noura, a young Saudi student receiving the same benefits asked him, “How do you manage to do so well in English? I barely made a ‘B.’” Mohammed replied, “My family insisted I learn English. I was able to practice it on our family trips to England. I wanted to study medicine here in Canada so I knew I had to know English and French. Allah has been good to bring us here, even though it is so blasted cold.”
As many as 16,000 Saudi students, including 1,000 medical residents, are studying in Canada. This reflects the long-standing relationship between Canada and Saudi Arabia. Besides medicine, the students are studying in the areas of business, humanities, social sciences, and the arts. Recently more emphasis has been placed on them to study teaching, as good teachers are needed in Saudi, especially in their women’s schools. Canadian believers often reach out to these students and invite them to their homes.
Pray that lasting relationships will develop so Saudi students will come to know the truth and light of Jesus that can change their lives and communities for eternity. Amen.
(Joshua Project)
Received: May 25, 2018
Julia
Was Iraq Better Under Saddam?
In a piece written for our May newsletter, Lord Hylton (the longest serving member of the House of Lords), writes:
“Paradoxically, the Christians of Iraq and Syria were protected by the secular though often brutal regimes of Saddam Hussein and Hafez al-Assad. They were prominent in the professions and in Business. Tariq Aziz, from a Christian family, was Saddam’s foreign minister.”
Over the last 15 years, Christians and other minorities in Iraq have suffered a series of horrors culminating in the terror of ISIS. It is hoped that the new Iraqi government will have a pluralist approach which respects the human rights of all. Iraq has surely had enough tragedy.
Please pray for this outcome. Amen.
(The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East)
Received: May 25, 2018
Julia
Today is a critical day as we take direct action at the U.N. to defend persecuted Christians.
Today we are delivering a critical legal submission to the U.N. Human Rights Council demanding the world acknowledges and takes action against the genocide that has devastated Christians.
They have been forced from their homes, barbarically slaughtered, tortured, and denied critical aid. As one young survivor bluntly put it, "We cried to the U.N. but nobody came to help us. Today, the village is surrounded by mass graves."
There is still a mass humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.
We have a moral obligation to act. It is imperative that the international community acknowledges these acts as genocide in order to protect Christians and other religious minorities returning to their homes.
Today we are filing a vital written submission to the U.N. Human Rights Council. We're telling the stories of Christian tragedy. We're forcing them to listen. We're forcing them to act.
We need you to pray for all Christians being persecuted around the world, and for the efforts of those who work to save them. Amen.
(American Center for Law and Justice)