I recognize an answer to prayer on behalf of another… God providing… God inviting… a joy to be sure… until… the one for whom I pray… refused the gift… said No…
And oh… the pain…
The stark reminder… we can’t make anyone take something… receive something offered… they must want it…
I wonder… What keeps him from receiving…? What keeps him closed off from the gift…?
Imagination runs wild wondering… stumped on how to pray… what to say… or do I just be still…
As I write… I recognize His pain of intercession…
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:16-17 NKJV
Father God sent Jesus as a gift for all… but not all receive…
The pain He suffers for interceding is for all… but the pain suffered for those who refuse… must ultimately be far greater than for those who receive…
Suffering for those who receive… is like labor pain… quickly forgotten at the sight of the newly born… or reborn…
But when all the labor ends in death… still born… there is no joy… only pain…
The pain of intercession belongs to Him… and to Believers… because we too… make up His body… we too intercede for the lost… the suffering… the walking soul-wounded…
We bear the pain… in the hope those for whom we pray will receive… if not this time… the next…
The intercession continues… trusting Him to be at work… interceding too…
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Romans 8:26 ESV
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Thanks, I needed this today.
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