I received a text message that said a close friend needed prayer.  She didn’t say why, just pray.  I receive prayer requests frequently, via text and email and telephone call.  Sometimes they tell me what for, and sometimes, with tear-filled voices, the caller will simply say “Please pray”.  Sometimes I pray right then, on the telephone with the caller.  Sometimes I send a prayer back via text or email.  And sometimes, like this morning, I take it to the Lord privately.  Just Jesus and me, interceding for the need.  My prayer list is so long, I no longer write the requests down.  I pray right now.  Because if I write it down it might wait until the next morning during my quiet time, and that might be too late.

This morning I awoke knowing someone was in dire need.  I could barely lift my head, and it took quite a few seconds to actually get my body out of bed.  The sheer magnitude of the fatigue was almost overwhelming.  And then I dissolved into tears, crying over the fatigue, the tiredness, and the desire to just quit.  By the time I got to my prayer chair I knew the need was was desperate, and someone was in horrible circumstances.  And I began to pray.  Eventually, the feeling passed and I was right-as-rain again.  But it still nags at me. Someone so debilitated this morning that they wanted to give up.  And again, I pray.

This is the life of someone gifted by God with a spirit of intercession.  Most times I do not have any idea who I am praying for, but I do know the need and so I lift that “one” to the throne, in prayer and supplication.  It isn’t an easy life though others looking in would think so.  Even after so many years of intercession, there are still times when it might take me 3 or 4 hours to remember to pray for someone else — that the sickness, the pain, the emotions I am experiencing are not mine — they belong to someone else in the body of Christ.  And as I pray for others, those things leave me.

So I just want to encourage you today, if you are feeling ‘not well’ in any area of your life, pray for someone else.  It doesn’t take much, usually.  Sometimes I have to pray for several hours before the impression leaves me, but usually just a couple of minutes or less.  Something simple, like, “Father, I lift to you whoever is feeling these symptoms of a head cold, and I ask for your healing touch upon them, in Jesus holy name. Amen.”

Let’s pray for others, rather than carry these burdens around unnecessarily.

James 5:16 — Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.