There is one thing I always come back to. Sometimes, I come crawling back to it. Sometimes I come crying back to it. Somehow, some way, I come back to the only thing I can’t live without; the constant dialogue I have in my mind and my heart, with my perfect Father.
Some people call it prayer. Some people call it a conversation with God. To me they are both. They are my lifeline. For me prayer is the source of my ability to truly live this life with hope for tomorrow and sanity for today.
I can know scripture, and I can preach the word, but without the conversations that take place as I journey through each day I would feel lost in this world. I would feel as if I was disconnected from my best friend. He is my friend who understands me and my friend when I need to understand. The only way I get to Him is in prayer.
One of the most beautiful seasons I ever spent in my life was a season of deep intercession.
Intercession is great because it takes your constant dialogue with God off of yourself and onto others around you.
This season was as if God was teaching me about prayer on a far deeper level than was normal. I would spend hours a day in a room praying for others. Hours. As I partnered with the Holy Spirit people would simply come to mind. Some of these people I knew. Some I knew very little, or not at all. Instead of question why this person or that person, I would just allow myself to follow the leading of the Spirit, and I would find myself praying all sorts of things for all sorts of people.
I had no idea why some of the things I prayed came to mind, but every now and then, I would get a glimpse of the fact that I was praying deep truths and unlocking deep revelation, about people I was led to pray for. It became like a little love game with God. He showed me His heart for others and while praying for them my heart often changed toward them also. I began to love like God loves and feel like He feels.
There were many times I would cry over someone as God gave me insight into them and their life. My heart shifted often, in this season, when it came to people I was offended by or angry with. It’s just impossible to pray for anyone sincerely without experiencing a heart shift toward them.
I will always consider this season of intercessory prayer a great gift to me.
I know that scripturally there are all kinds of prayers, but It’s funny how the classification of what kind of prayer I am praying, when I am praying, always seems far less important than just the fact that I am praying at all. It doesn’t really matter when you are the one crying out to God for something or someone. When deep calls out to deep, all theology goes out the window, and suddenly you are engaged in a yearning cry from deep within, for the one true source of life to fill you once again, touch you once again, speak to you once again.
That’s what prayer is to me!
Cynthia Garrett