How do you keep from getting down when you are a prayer partner? I am usually really good but sometimes it is all so overwhelming and really gets to me and I just break down. Thank you for your input.
This question was asked by someone on another network, who graciously agreed to it's posting here. All of us intercessors need encouragement, and I am sure many have experienced what the question asked. Your response to this question above, may help others, and I know some would love to hear how others have responded.
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To all the intercessors in the Intercessor Group, the question I put forth to Anne, is one that I would appreciate some of the intercessors in our group opening up on. It is VERY important:
Putting yourself in Anne's place, or other times of your intercession that are similar--How should we be praying to cover other intercessors as we intercede for them?
Anne,
Thanks for being open and vulnerable. You have something very close to your heart that many intercessors do not talk about, and I know it is very personal to you.
I have a question that would help others support you during those times of intense intercession.--Don't rush your reply--here is the question--How should we be praying for other intercessors?? What you share may help us, as we cover other intercessors in prayer, too.
Thanks, and blessings,
Lewis
Lewis wrote, "I have a question that would help others support you during those times of intense intercession.--Don't rush your reply--here is the question--How should we be praying for other intercessors?? What you share may help us, as we cover other intercessors in prayer, too."
Wow, this is a VERY GOOD question, but it has been a very difficult question for me to answer. I have to admit that my knee-jerk, first reaction reply, in my head, was that intercessors just don't have time to pray for other intercessors. This is a VERY WRONG response, but, unfortunately, a very common problem.
I will only answer from MY perspective and MY experience:
Intercessors do not often take the time to pray for other intercessors. We have our "assignments" that God lays on our hearts, and at the end of the day, there are STILL SOOOOO MANY OTHER things, people, problems, sicknesses, broken marriages, etc that STILL NEED prayer, but we have NO TIME left...NOR do we have any strength left to pray even if we did have time! Praying for other intercessors in addition...just the thought can be overwhelming!
Is it realistic to suggest that God can and will lay it on our hearts to pray for another intercessor when that other intercessor needs prayer support, and that we could be "open" and "obedient" to pray as directed by the Holy Spirit. This does require being "open" to God to do this, though.
Once we are "open" and sense the leading of the Spirit to pray, then, unless we have a CLEAR DIRECTION, (which, if we do, we need to pray into that...then we could do the following...), we could pray for that other intercessor the way that WE would want others to pray for US! That is one possible way in which we might be successful in praying for other intercessors.
I am not sure if any of this resonates with others, but it is just my experience and my suggestion (hopefully a more Christ-like response than the one I started this comment with!)
May GOD lead and BLESS YOU ALL as you CONTINUE to follow Him and serve Him in the trenches of intercession!!!!!!!!!!!
Love you guys!!!!! :)
Anne--
Thank you --It took a lot for you to be open and your reply is very helpful. Perhaps other intercessors may now be willing to open up and share like you did.
Thank you Anne
Anne-
What you share has only been shared only by a few intercessors. This came from sharing your heart with us--Thanks being open in your sharing--and it should help us be better able to pray for others--especially if we know how overwhelming a task may be. Yes--we intercessors have painful times of prayer where the burden is extremely heavy.
Also--thanks for sharing how the Lord helped you and what it meant for the Lord to be a light to you and how it helped you.--It is a blessing to hear that.
The person who shared the original question found areas of prayer became overwhelming too. I can only imagine how many other intercessors are out there who have experienced similar situations. If any others are willing to share where prayer has been over-whelming and how they worked through it, and including insights about it that they might have--I know it would also be helpful to many.
there was a season in my life when the lord would wake me up in the middle of the night and call me to pray. very rarely would He tell me whom i was to pray for. so i prayed Scripture, for example, eph 1:17-19a (that God would give a spirit of wisdom and revelation, etc). phil 1:6 and 2:13 (that God will complete His work in us). rom 12:1-2 (offering God our bodies and not conforming to the world). 2 cor 10:3-4 (that we would fight with divine weapons and taking every thought captive) etc.
i would pray these for whom ever i was praying for and also for my self. now when i'm too discouraged to pray, i pray those prayers for myself and those i intercede for. i then ask God to raise up intercessors for the ones I am weary of praying for, like He would wake me up to pray for others. i am then able to release the prayer burden with God's peace (shalom-look up the original meaning, it's wonderful) and rest until i can pick up the prayer burden with all the joy that comes with it.
mary
Mary--
Thanks for sharing the scriptures you use when the Lord wakes you up at night to pray.--I know others who have experienced being waked up by the Lord will appreciate what you shared. I do.
Blessings
GREAT QUESTION! THANKS for sharing! I, frequently, get overwhelmed. The pain of carrying others' pain, as an intercessor, can be unbearable. I am the intercessor for a Christian filmmaker, and I am in the process of writing a book about it. I wrote a chapter about feeling unbearable emotional pain as an intercessor. May I share that chapter, please? I pray it helps! Here it is:
THRIVING in Spite of Unbearable Emotional Pain in Your Closet
I admit it – I am the absolute LAST person on the face of this entire earth that should be writing this chapter. I do not know how to actually “do” what I named the title of this chapter. (Gasp! But, give me a chance to explain, though! Please!) Time after time – after time – I fail miserably. I just failed – AGAIN – but as an example, I am going to share that failure with you, so we can all benefit from it – me included!
I was intensely focusing my heart and prayers on a situation that I know Greg needs prayer for, when I received word of an untimely death. My heart, which was already greatly hurting over the very situation I was originally praying for, broke even more. (Is that possible?) The pain was unbearable. My heart hurt so much. (Sometimes I wonder how intercessors are supposed to stay sane in their closets –but then I think, “I know better than that.”) So, I took a deep breath – well, as deep as I could with pleurisy (an inflammation in the lining around the lung), and I very simply asked God for strength and help. (Even “MIGHTY CLOSET WARRIORS” need to cry to God for help for themselves.) I realized, unfortunately, that I had taken one too many deep breaths, because my chest started to terribly hurt. My physical pain, however, was nothing compared to the emotional pain that I felt in my heart.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30 (KJV)
“No, it isn't,” I think to myself. (Gasp again! Again, hear me out, please!) God is the One Who called me to be Greg's Intercessor, and He also gave me an intensely sensitive heart to the prayer needs of others as well. I cannot handle it all!
Hmmm, that's right. I cannot handle it all. But, He can! When I go to Him, when I am laboring and weary, He will give me rest. Rest. Ahhh, rest.
I remember after the very first time I “prayed through” a three-day-long-tv-shoot for Greg. I had never before prayed so intensely for three days straight. It sounds so “easy” now compared to then, but it was my very first experience, and I was overwhelmed beyond anything I had ever experienced in prayer prior to that. I remember very clearly crying to Greg on the phone about it. He told me, “You're a 'Battle-Weary Warrior' and you need some rest.” He was right. That was in November of 2009. If I had called Greg today, at that very instant that my heart was breaking beyond my ability to bear, and cried to him that my heart was overwhelmed with intensely painful prayer needs, he probably would have told me the very same thing he told me then – and he would still be right today.
Remembering that conversation, I took a break. Instead of praying for what I had been praying about, I prayed for something happy. Something hopeful. After, I tried to focus my heart on God, Himself. I tried to get my eyes off of the pain that my heart was entering into on behalf of my assignments, and tried to get them on “The Only One Who Can Truly Help.”
Then, oddly enough, I remembered that my children need money for a church activity that they would be attending. I walked over to where my husband keeps his money, (Don't worry. I have permission to take his money! Wink!) and I took some money to give to my daughter. She, in her very sweet voice, said that she had money so I didn't have to take it from Daddy. But, I proudly proclaimed that, “God loves a cheerful giver,” (2 Corinthians 9:7), and I am such a cheerful giver with Daddy's money! We both laughed. It was a much-needed laugh for my hurting soul.
After that, God reminded me of the verse, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10b KJV) My strength. Our strength. We, as Closet Intercessors, need to keep HIS joy, regardless of the pain of the prayer requests that come our way, for the joy of the Lord, TRULY, is our strength.
Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me. (Micah 7:7-8 KJV)
So, yes, I failed –AGAIN! I fell, but I arose, and when I sat in the darkness of intense pain, the LORD was a light unto me because I looked unto the LORD and I waited for the God of my salvation. And – my God heard me. He gave me strength – the strength I cried out for. (another deep breath –This one does not hurt as much!)