Prayer and Intimacy Again

Photo from "Love at the Heart of Things" by E. Glen Hinson

Devotional Classics, p. 89, Douglas Steere, Excerpts from Prayer and Worship

"When we hold up the life of another before God, when we expose it to God's love, when we pray for its realease from drowsiness, for the quickening of its inner health, for the power to throw off a destructive habit, for the restoration of its free and vital relationship with its fellows, for its strength to resist temptation, for its courage to continue against sharp opposition - only then do we sense what it means to share in God's work, in his concern; only then do the walls that separate us from others go down and we sense that we are at bottom all knit together in a great and intimate family."

I see this idea of intimacy can be a false one if I emphasize the power of prayer to make me family with others over and against the power of Christ to make sons and daughters of God. By faith we are saved, not by someone else's prayer.

However, I know that there is a close relationship between this faith and prayer. I pray for others to hear the One calling out to them. I cry out for their soul's restoration, their mind's freedom, and their heart's right and free choice to be with the Lord. So my prayers become a prequel to faith.

In this sense I am family with everyone: the most important relationship I have with them is one shared relationship with God. We are all brothers and sisters because we have one Father. "Our Father in heaven" is still our Father whether we accept him or not. So everyone is at least potentially my spiritual family.

Although this seems to be in the realm of "might be's" and hope, I was hit last night and this morning about how prayer is able to draw us close to other people. It greatly increases our intimacy with each person I pray for.

I become an invisible companion with God and the person. I journey with them through their life and even hear things that God may be telling them that they do not yet hear. It sounds presumptuous, but it is well established in the Bible that when we hear God, we may be more aware of another person's needs or desires than they themselves are. Through prayer Dawn has seen more keenly into my life than I have on a number of occasions.

It is not easy, though. It hurts to be close and walk through other's pain and bad choices. It really can be a labor and burden. I have frequently put such prayers aside because of the suffering involved.

I see how easy it is to not "share in God's work." He suffers intensely as we go our way without him. He longs for us with all his heart. To share in God's work is also to share in God's pain.

What encourages me to keep going is that my desire to be close and at hand outweighs my fear of pain. With my children, I hurt when I see their pain or missteps, but I do not abandon them, I try to stay even closer. I hope that my presence will be some comfort to them, even if I cannot ease their pain or teach them the right way effectively.

Also intimacy with God strenghtens me for the task, when I lose hope and endurance. Actually, this intimacy I would identify as adoration. "'The most fundamental need, duty, honor, and happiness of men is not petition or even contrition, nor again, even thanksgiving. . . but adoration. . . .' In adoration we enjoy God. We ask nothing except to be near him." (p.91)

Lord, I find that I long to be near to you and near to the people around me. Such nearness brings pain - sometimes excruciating - but it is far better than the coldness of being alone. Let me seek to pray for others so that I may be closer to them and closer to you. This is the heart of intercession - intimacy. Enlarge my heart. Turn it from a heart of stone to one of flesh. Amen.

This thought helps me to realize my reluctance to intercede for others as well as the uppermost goal lies in intimacy. People do not need answers as much as they need companions and family. Even the promise of eternal life is not a promise of knowing answers but Jesus' goal "that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (Jn. 17:3)