As Easter Sunday approaches, colorful plastic eggs are rolled out by the dozens, candy makers stock and restock market shelves while fresh grass is fabricated in rainbow colors. In the middle of all the hustle and shuffle I find myself useless, with no real purpose on this planet. I look around and it seems like every person, everywhere continues to miss the point of the season, the Cross; the power It holds. Honestly I can no longer open or fill another plastic egg with candies that cause tooth decay, carb overload and have nothing whatsoever to do with the priceless gift of Salvation. What now? I turn to the WORD of GOD and I am reminded once again that I live daily because of Him, to bring Him glory, to magnify Him – not myself. My life is not meant to be the judge of others who fail the standard I have fabricated in my own mind. I am once again reminded of the inconceivable love of Jesus Christ fitting every purpose. On the Cross my Savior surrenders everything so I may choose to be as He desires me to be. This year I want to fill my egg basket with prayers for the lost; the lonely; the broken-hearted; the sick; the homeless; the jobless; the wealthy; the embittered and even those I do not easily entertain. Why? Because GOD hears and loves me. Imagine? Prayer is, after all, an outpouring of Holy Spirit, nothing I own or control. The same Comforter who desires to love me into my purpose so desires to love everyone on this scrappy little planet. This one thing I do know, I have real purpose and the plastic eggs? Well, a plastic egg will now serve as a simple reminder to refocus my heart on Him. LORD, I surrender. Teach my heart continuously to pray as You alone will lead me.
“… Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, He was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so His own arm achieved salvation for Him, and His own righteousness sustained Him.” Isaiah 59:15b-16 (NIV)
Excerpt from My Utmost for His Highest March 30- “And He . . . wondered that there was no intercessor.” —Isaiah 59:16 (KJV)
The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard towards God is because we have only a sentimental interest in prayer. It sounds right to say that we pray; we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial, that our minds are quieted and our souls uplifted when we pray; but Isaiah implies that God is amazed at such thoughts of prayer.
Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray. Too often instead of worshipping God, we construct statements as to how prayer works. Are we worshipping or are we in dispute with God – “I don’t see how You are going to do it.” This is a sure sign that we are not worshipping. When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God’s throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.
Are we so worshipping God that we rouse ourselves up to lay hold on Him so that we may be brought into contact with His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship to God, or are we hard and dogmatic?
“But there is no one interceding properly” – then be that one yourself, be the one who worships God and who lives in holy relationship to Him. Get into the real work of intercession, and remember it is a work, a work that taxes every power; but a work which has no snare. Preaching the gospel has a snare; intercessory prayer has none.
