I DON'T FEEL LIKE PRAYING ANYMORE

Nikki Hixson

Galatians 6:2- “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Matthew 18:19- “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

This week we are talking about intercession.  A big word, I know.  Intercession is just a fancy word that means praying for another person; interceding on their behalf.  Instead of preaching at you and telling you why you should pray for other people, I want to give you an example of when I needed other people to pray with me for a certain purpose.  I think a lot of you will be able to relate to my experience and my prayer is that in this you will be able to see at least one of the many benefits of interceding for one another.

Have you ever prayed for someone for so long and never saw any results?  It gets discouraging after a while, doesn’t it?  It doesn’t take long for you to grow tired and weary of not seeing your prayers get answered, and you almost subconsciously decide to stop praying for that person.  I’ve been there.  After praying for several years that God would change the heart of my best friend; believing God to do something big in her life, when nothing seemed to be happening, I just got fed up.  I was tired of committing time to pray for someone when it seemed like my prayers were just hitting the ceiling.  Ever felt that way?  I wanted so bad to get to see her fully surrender her life to Jesus and what He says is best.  I wanted to get to witness her turn her life around; no more going out, no more getting drunk, no more having sex with random guys.  I prayed all the time and I believed God to do something big.  But, nothing ever happened.  So, I quit praying.

I recently had a few friends tell me that they would commit to praying for this friend of mine; I cannot explain the burden I felt lifted off my shoulders because of that.  Since then, I have seen this friend show more of an interest in Jesus in these last couple of months than I ever have during the time that I spent praying for her.  This confirms what Jesus says in Matthew 18:19- “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”  There is power in numbers.  I believe every prayer we’ve ever prayed is out there somewhere, and when someone agrees with us in prayer, that adds more power to it.   In my friends choosing to commit to pray for her, they helped carry my burden and also added power to the prayers I had already prayed in the past.  It was a win-win.

Perhaps there is nothing “extreme” going on in your life at the moment; maybe if someone were to ask how they can pray for you, thankfully, you would hesitate because you honestly cannot think of anything you need prayer for.  If that is the case, then I would encourage you to be asking others how you can pray for them.  Ask them how you can intercede for them. On the flip side, if there is something going on in your life that you need prayer for, I would strongly urge you to reach out to someone and ask them to pray for you.  There is so much power in prayer.  I heard a quote once that said this- “If only we knew what was happening when we prayed, we would never cease to pray.”  When we pray, God doesn’t just hear us, He intently listens, and the heavens shift according to what we ask.  Act on what you’ve read in this devotional today and intercede for someone.