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
Please pray for Reverend Faiz and his wife Nawal in their ministry at St. George's in Baghdad. (Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East)
Received: April 19, 2018
Julia
For Those Who Have Asked For Our Prayers
Lord, thou seest well that many there be which trust to my prayer for grace, that thou showest to me more than I am worthy. Thou wost well Lord, that I am not such as they ween, but though my prayer be unworthy, take regard to their lowliness and to their devotion, and what they desire to thy worship, grant them of thy goodness. Grant them and me and to all others for whom we be holden to pray, grace to love what is to thy liking, thee to love to thy most pleasing, nothing to desire that thee should displease, all manner temptations mightily to withstand, all other vanities for thy love to despise, thee good Lord, ever to have in mind, and in thy service for to abide till our life’s end. Amen.
(A Priest’s Prayer, Bodleian Manuscript)
Received: April 19, 2018
Julia
A Prayer for Easter from Frank Colquhoun
O Lord God of our fathers, who didst of old deliver thy people from the prison-house of Egypt through the paschal sacrifice: Mercifully grant that we thy new Israel, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, may be set free from the bondage of evil and serve thee henceforth in the joy and power of the resurrection; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ, whoever liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Received: April 18, 2018
Julia
A Prayer for Easter from William Bright
O Lord, who by triumphing over the power of darkness, didst Prepare our place in the New Jerusalem:
Grant us, who have this day given thanks for thy resurrection, to praise thee in that city whereof thou art
the light; where with the Father and the Holy Spirit thou livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.
Received: April 17, 2018
Julia
Prayer for Easter by Adam of St. Victor
I see flames of orange, yellow, and red shooting upwards to the sky, piercing the whole clouds.
I see the clouds themselves chasing the flames upwards, and I feel the air itself reaching for the heavens.
Down below I see great, grey rocks beating against the earth, as if they were pushing their way down to hell.
At your resurrection that which is light and good rises up with you, and that which is heavy and evil is pushed downwards.
At your resurrection goodness breaks from evil, life breaks free from death.
Amen.
Received: April 16, 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 and Poland. Are you ready to stand in the gap, where God is the Helper and Teacher?
Please pray that 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 – 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 great wisdom in school for Daniel, and for Edmund’s work situation, for Dorothy and Peter (also God's direction for his life) and Ann (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: April 14, 2018
Julia
A Prayer for Easter from the Book of Common Order
Almighty God, who broughtest again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the glorious Prince of Salvation, with
everlasting victory over sin and the grave: Grant us power, we beseech thee, to rise with him to newness
of life, that we may overcome the world with the victory of faith, and have part at last in the resurrection
of the just; through the merits of the same risen Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy
Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Received: April 13, 2018
Julia
A Prayer For Easter from Daily Prayer
O God, the living God, who hast given unto us a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: Grant that we, being risen with him, may seek the things which are above, and be made partakers of the life eternal; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Daily Prayer)
Received: April 11, 2018
Julia
A Prayer for Easter to Begin the Day
O Christ, the light of men, who on the third day didst arise from the grave and shed thy bright beams upon the darkness of the world; grant, we beseech thee, that, enlightened by thy presence, we may walk as children of the day, to the glory of thy Name who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.
(Frederick B. Macnutt)
Received: April 10, 2018
Julia
Prayer For Easter by Lancelot Andrewes
Oracles of Prophets,
melody of Psalms,
instruction of Proverbs,
experience of Histories.
God is the Lord who hath shewed us light;
bind the sacrifice with cords,
yea even unto the horns of the altar.
O by thy Resurrection raise us up unto newness of life,
helping us to shew forth a conversation meet for repentance.
The God of peace,
who did bring again from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
make us perfect in every good work,
to do his will,
working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight,
through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen.