Last time we went over four parts of prayer: praise, waiting, confession, and watching. If you took just five minutes on each one of those aspects you'd have twenty minutes of prayer time! That would be revolutionary for most Christian young ladies. The next part of prayer is really the heart of prayer - intercession - praying on the behalf of another.
If we would look at the average prayer list, most of the requests would be for others. This is important. Praying for others is prayer that pleases God and helps us become more caring Christians. We should pray for ourselves and we'll get to that part, but others should come first in our lives, right after the Lord!
Types of intercessory prayer...
1. Praying for those that don't even know they need prayer
a. the unsaved
b. those we minister to on a weekly basis - Bus route riders, Sunday School friends, elderly, visitors at church, neighbors
c. friends who are out of church or who are struggling
d. our authorities at school, work, or in the community
2. Praying for those who ask for and desire our prayers
a. missionaries and evangelists around the world - I pray for several missionary families every single day, plus I have a list of thirty-one missionaries and I pray for a different one each day of the month.
b. church leadership - pastor, assistants, Sunday School teachers, bus captains, music leaders
c. ministries in the United States - churches, camps, evangelists, colleges
3. Praying for our loved ones
a. parents
b. siblings
c. grandparents
d. uncles and aunts
e. cousins
f. nieces and nephews
4. Praying for our friends
a. close friends
b. acquaintances
c. new friends
d. sick or injured
e. those who've had a tragedy or bad news
Just listing the options of those can pray for makes for a long list! When we turn our spiritual vision outward we can have a wonderful prayer time of intercession - praying on the behalf others!
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