It's common to hear Christians offer to pray for one another, which is called intercession. Intercede means "to intervene on behalf of another." Intercession isn't just making a wish on someone's behalf or trying to get God to pay attention to something that he's missed or ignored. As with all prayer, we are talking to a real person — Jesus. With intercession, it's a conversation on behalf of someone else and their situation. When we intercede, we can trust that Jesus knows everything about the other person and what they're going through so we don't have to fill him in on the details. And because he sees the bigger picture that none of us can, our role in intercession is not to tell him what should be done but rather to ask him how to pray for them.
Here are some questions to ask God when interceding for someone or about something:
- God, what do you want for (person/situation) in this?
- Jesus, where are you already at work in this situation and how can I get in agreement with that?
You might pray something like this:
Holy Spirit, I know you are already interceding for (person/situation) (Romans 8:27). How can I join you in that prayer?