How Can I Help You?
Kingdom Journey: Day 150
Friday, July 28, 2023
Today’s Reading: 2 Corinthians 1
There is a fine line between gossip and intercession. Intercession is when you talk to God about other people. Gossip is when you talk to people about people—and they can only listen but never be a solution. My dear friend R. T. Kendall says these profound words: “Remember this rule of thumb: if people gossip to you, they will also gossip about you.”
Gossip and intercession are so closely associated, it’s just an issue of who you go to about other people. The Corinthians chose intercession and not gossip. Intercession is so important. They are about to show us what prayer for people can do for them.
Charles Bent wrote, “Intercessory prayer might be defined as loving our neighbour on our knees.” The Corinthian church loves Paul and loves him on their knees. Listen to these words:
As you labor together with us through prayer. Because there are so many interceding for us, our deliverance will cause even more people to give thanks to God. What a gracious gift of mercy surrounds us because of your prayers! (2 Corinthians 1:11, TPT)
Or if you want a real punch to this verse, read it out of The Message:
You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.
Every time you pray for someone, you are helping them. Intercession is so much better than gossip. Choose to talk to the right person about the information you have about people. The Corinthian church did, and amazing things happened. The Message says it best: “You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation.” You get to be connected to people through your prayer life and be on a rescue mission for them.
When your prayer life is weak, so is your helping. People we love and their deliverance from a situation could very well be connected to your prayer life. Your greatest contribution to the people you love is to develop a prayer life on their behalf.
Here’s an important lesson I have learned: when I pray for people, I don’t gossip about them.
Let me be practical for a moment. Be deliberate in asking people if you can pray for them and then really pray for them. Don’t just tell them, “I’ll be praying for you.” Actually do it. Write it down. Get a notebook and label it “Intercession.”
Here’s a thought for you at church. Go one more step in your greetings and your hellos in church. We have so much surface, “Hey, how you doing?” and responses like “Great,” “Good,” and “Praise the Lord.” Make it a point if you hear of a need, pray for them right then and there. You don’t need to have an answer for their situation, but you can be part of the solution with prayer. Ask them, “Can we pray right now about that?” If you are having lunch with them, pray for their request while you pray for the meal.
Think of Paul’s words to these Corinthians: “You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.”
Can you imagine one of the members of the Corinthian church having this on their next job application: “Name a big project you helped create and worked on that had success.” And they write, “I helped the apostle Paul with his second missionary journey.” Did they go with him?
No, they just prayed for him and he said they played a crucial role. And then they hand the interviewer Paul’s “reference” letter.
We don’t think prayer counts. But according to the Bible, it counts. Big time. We need to have a high view of prayer. Prayer is participating in someone’s life. Prayer makes me part of your adventures. And you part of mine.
One of my favorite quotes on intercession is by Walter Wink. In fact, it’s one of the five prayer quotes I try to say every day before I pray. And this one is always a good reminder about 2 Corinthians 1:11. It’s simple but powerful: “History belongs to the intercessors.”
Make history today. Pray for someone today.
Excerpt from:
Dilena, Tim. The 260 Journey. Colorado Springs, CO, Book Villages, 2001.
260journey.com
There is a fine line between gossip and intercession. Intercession is when you talk to God about other people. Gossip is when you talk to people about people—and they can only listen but never be a solution. My dear friend R. T. Kendall says these profound words: “Remember this rule of thumb: if people gossip to you, they will also gossip about you.”
Gossip and intercession are so closely associated, it’s just an issue of who you go to about other people. The Corinthians chose intercession and not gossip. Intercession is so important. They are about to show us what prayer for people can do for them.
Charles Bent wrote, “Intercessory prayer might be defined as loving our neighbour on our knees.” The Corinthian church loves Paul and loves him on their knees. Listen to these words:
As you labor together with us through prayer. Because there are so many interceding for us, our deliverance will cause even more people to give thanks to God. What a gracious gift of mercy surrounds us because of your prayers! (2 Corinthians 1:11, TPT)
Or if you want a real punch to this verse, read it out of The Message:
You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.
Every time you pray for someone, you are helping them. Intercession is so much better than gossip. Choose to talk to the right person about the information you have about people. The Corinthian church did, and amazing things happened. The Message says it best: “You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation.” You get to be connected to people through your prayer life and be on a rescue mission for them.
When your prayer life is weak, so is your helping. People we love and their deliverance from a situation could very well be connected to your prayer life. Your greatest contribution to the people you love is to develop a prayer life on their behalf.
Here’s an important lesson I have learned: when I pray for people, I don’t gossip about them.
Let me be practical for a moment. Be deliberate in asking people if you can pray for them and then really pray for them. Don’t just tell them, “I’ll be praying for you.” Actually do it. Write it down. Get a notebook and label it “Intercession.”
Here’s a thought for you at church. Go one more step in your greetings and your hellos in church. We have so much surface, “Hey, how you doing?” and responses like “Great,” “Good,” and “Praise the Lord.” Make it a point if you hear of a need, pray for them right then and there. You don’t need to have an answer for their situation, but you can be part of the solution with prayer. Ask them, “Can we pray right now about that?” If you are having lunch with them, pray for their request while you pray for the meal.
Think of Paul’s words to these Corinthians: “You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.”
Can you imagine one of the members of the Corinthian church having this on their next job application: “Name a big project you helped create and worked on that had success.” And they write, “I helped the apostle Paul with his second missionary journey.” Did they go with him?
No, they just prayed for him and he said they played a crucial role. And then they hand the interviewer Paul’s “reference” letter.
We don’t think prayer counts. But according to the Bible, it counts. Big time. We need to have a high view of prayer. Prayer is participating in someone’s life. Prayer makes me part of your adventures. And you part of mine.
One of my favorite quotes on intercession is by Walter Wink. In fact, it’s one of the five prayer quotes I try to say every day before I pray. And this one is always a good reminder about 2 Corinthians 1:11. It’s simple but powerful: “History belongs to the intercessors.”
Make history today. Pray for someone today.
Excerpt from:
Dilena, Tim. The 260 Journey. Colorado Springs, CO, Book Villages, 2001.
260journey.com
Recent
Archive
2023
January
Getting Rid of Your LabelsAlways One Step AheadHearing the Most Important VoiceWhy You Are a TargetJesus’ Prescription for HappinessThe Paycheck is Really Good—So Show UpLogs and SpecksEight is MondayHow Big Is Your Faith?God’s People Are Different and That’s GoodHow Exclamations Turn into Question MarksTaking My 18,000 Real SeriouslyWhy Is It Hard for Me to Read the Bible?When Someone I Love DiesFighting to Get My AnswerSome Days Simon, Some Days Peter, and Some Days SatanA Private “Why”An Incredible Promise of His PresenceDo You Know Someone Who Needs to Be Saved?God’s Generosity Goes Beyond What’s FairTwo Hurdles Away from Moving a MountainChange Starts with Love
February
Hypocrite!The Day the Curtains Come DownThree Stories That Remind Me of ForeverHow Can You Be That Far Off?The Tearful Eye or the Broken NeckThe First Words of the Resurrected JesusDemon Prayers and Fever PrayersFour of a Kind Beats a Full HouseJesus Pulls a WebsterTwo Storms StoriesThe Man Who Lived in a CemeteryLimiting JesusPutting the Word of God in a WheelchairI Don’t Want to Be Known As 409Seized StatementsJesus Gets a TestWhat Stops Mountains from Ending Up in the Ocean?When the Renters Think They Are the OwnersThe Best Way to Study End TimesWhat Were You Thinking at #1?
March
Can You Imagine if Your Dad Carried Jesus’ Cross?The Big Rock Story Sounds like a Big Bang StoryYou Never Know What Could Happen if You just Show UpLosing JesusJohn the Baptist’s Water Baptism Instructional ClassSatan Quotes the BibleI Want My Own Fish StoryA Christian’s Retaliation ResponseWhat Do I Do With All These Tears?Living a High-Def Life“Jesus, You Promised and Now I Can’t—I Don’t Understand”Helping People I HateI Am Not Going to Have Another Unused GiftMy, My, My, MyHow to Face Tragic DeathExcuses! Excuses! Excuses!The Father Is More Prodigal Than the SonHell Is a Real PlaceGetting More Than You Asked ForIt Should Be Easy to Pick Out Who God Likes Best . . . or Maybe NotDesperate Times Call for Desperate MeasuresTaking a Page From Jesus’ Method in Hostile EnvironmentsNo Noise Offerings
April
Plotting Satan and Praying ChristJust BreatheA Fire Seven Miles Outside of JerusalemThe First 10:00 A.M. ServiceBad Stuff Is Always Trying to Make Its Way Back in My LifeDon’t Make It Harder Than It IsTwo Truths for FreedomYou Don’t Need Bubbles AnymoreYou Should Have Stopped at the FishNow You Know the Rest of the StoryTrying to Declaw the LionI Once Was Blind but Now I SeeSheep Need a ShepherdNot Till It StinksParadoxical ChristiansFour Shouldn’t Follow ThreeOne Comes After Thirty-EightWill You Accept the Challenge?The Warning Sign or the HospitalLift Up Your Eyes in Prayer
May
What Kind of Pilate/Pilot Are You?You Can’t Hide One Hundred PoundsA Sunday-Night Message From JesusDropping the Light BulbHow Your Problems Can Be the Fulfillment of Your DreamHow Do You Face the Worst Times?3 P.M. ChristiansThe “Can’t Help It” ConditionIt May Look Exactly the Same but Be Drastically DifferentThe Reason It’s a Requirement: Because It Will Be Needed for a WeaponWhere Do Aliens Come From?Be Careful of Playing With FireHow a Really Bad Man Becomes the Greatest ChristianHow an Italian Met a JewOne of Three