The Faithfulness of Intercessory Prayer

by Katherine Harms
(Baltimore, MD)

Several years ago I was offered work as a consultant. This job required full-time travel. My husband and I discussed the benefits and risks at great length. We concluded that it was the right choice for us at the time, but our agreement did not end my fears for our marriage under the stress and temptations of frequent, lengthy separations.

My fears forced me to look for a way to protect our relationship. I doubted we could face, in our own strength, temptations that had felled many strong people. Although I had tried and failed to maintain a regular prayer time more than once, I made up my mind afresh that I would start each and every day with prayer.

In the years since that decision, I have learned a great deal about prayer. It was soon obvious that my good intentions were no match for personal weakness and forgetfulness.

For example, one friend said to me, “My daughter has become so distant. Yesterday she told me that she wishes I were dead. Please pray for us.” I promised, of course.

The next morning, when I began to pray, I forgot all about it. I prayed for my husband and me, I prayed for our church, and I prayed that my own children would be safe. Sadly, I forgot to pray for my friend and her daughter. Days passed. Then I received an e-mail with further news about the troubled relationship between my friend and her daughter. My stomach ached. I had forgotten to pray for her. How cruel.

I could tell you many such stories. Each time I agonized about my failure. How can I ever remember all the people I agree to pray for? After a few such experiences, I developed a new strategy. Each time I received a prayer request, I prayed right away. Having done so, if I forgot my friend the next morning, at least I had done something. That idea helped my self-esteem, but it only mitigated the problem. Many, many requests involved long-running problems. Relationships, illnesses, even politics – a moment’s prayer for such things was only a beginning. Fervent, persistent prayer was required, but I simply could not remember everything.

A simple solution came to mind. I started keeping a small notebook. In this notebook I wrote down prayer concerns. I recorded the requests of friends. I listed concerns motivated by news reports. I wrote things that bothered me about national politics or a local murder. Maybe I noted only a date and a name, but sometimes I wrote a whole paragraph of thoughts and prayers. My notes helped me to remember my promises, but it soon presented a new problem. I remembered more than I could handle. Prayer time became a lengthy, heavy burden.

Discipline was required, even for prayer concerns. I had to find the middle ground that met my commitment without burying me. I decided that a month was long enough for most things. Because I dated each entry, I could always go back one month from the current day. If something rolled off before I was ready to stop praying about it, I created a new entry. If something were resolved before the end of the month, I wrote “Thank you!” beside that entry.

My little prayer notebook produced some very good outcomes. First, I continued to pray my “Thank you!” for an answered prayer until that item rolled off the calendar. It was wonderful to give thanks in the midst of ongoing petitions. Thanksgiving sustained my hope and nourished my faith that God heard my prayers. Further, by the time a month had passed, I knew more detail about most requests or concerns. If a month of prayer proved inadequate for any item, the new entry often included new perspective. It is important that persistent prayer not become a rote process, and my notebook entries motivated me to give more attention to long-running issues.

Keeping the notebook is a discipline. As with any discipline, the commitment is easier than the performance. It has enriched and informed my prayer life, but it would be wrong to tell you that I have solved all my prayer problems this way. I sometimes forget even to write a request in the book. I sometimes pass over an old request as if it did not matter as much as the more recent ones. I have been known to fail to recognize God’s answers.

I am still a prayer toddler, hoping against hope to become a big girl some day. Yet my little notebook is clearly a part of God’s lesson plan for me, an important element of my growth. My prayer notebook is a tool that is helping me to mature in the life of grace and faith.

God gave me the gift of opportunity to grow professionally as a consultant. The price was regular separation from my husband, a potential disaster. I had to learn how to use God’s gift as a steward and an obedient servant. The challenge of the gift was an opportunity to grow in faith as well.

The discipline of daily prayer became a new gift I now treasure. The professional benefits of becoming a traveling consultant could easily have posed a great risk to our marriage.. I believe the fact that the risk motivated me to commit to daily prayer is the most important part of God’s gift of the job. I thought this job offer was about advancing in my career, but in God’s economy, it was his chosen next step for my personal growth.

Each of us must deal with our prayer concerns in the way that fits our own lives and our own relationship with the Lord. My little prayer notebook is working for me. Maybe it will work for you, too.