There is no gift more valuable than the gift of prayer. When we craft prayers for others, we invest in their future. Lianna Klassen, a Celtic Christian artist in the early 2000’s, wrote a song called, ‘The Future Belongs to the Intercessors.” As soon as I heard it, it was one of those phrases that stuck like glue.

While the most valuable of all gifts is prayer, casual and insincere promises of prayer can leave something to be desired. ‘I’ll pray for you’ is often the quick go-to line when someone needs to make a quick exit. It’s the believer’s equivalent to, ‘Have a nice day!’ Does everyone who says, ‘I’ll pray for you’ actually do it? We know the answer.

The person who needed it so desperately would be very discouraged if they knew that the one who promised to pray didn’t actually do it. It’s comforting to know that Jesus prays continually. We are never in a position where we have no one talking to the Father about us. Jesus sits at His Father’s side at this very moment and is praying for us with great detail, with intense passion, and with divine knowledge.

The night of Jesus’ arrest, He showed us the value of prayer. When He was preparing to say goodbye to His disciples, He broke into the longest prayer in the Bible. (John 17) It’s so weighty that we could spend years meditating on it and not scratch the surface. When my prayers habitually sound like this ~ “Jesus, please be near them and bless them”, I should know that I’m only skimming the surface. Scripture fuels my prayers with substance and fire.

Here are a few ideas from personal experience and from hanging around other intercessors.

• Ask the one you are praying for, ‘What is it you need from God?’  Listen before you begin praying. It need never be guesswork.
• Ask God to lead you to the right scriptures to undergird your prayers. Put their names in the passage.
• If someone is open, offer to pray for them right after they have shared their need. Be intentional to pray their story. Let them hear you verbalize to God why they need Him. Be sure to end your prayers with God’s promises!
• Say their name throughout the prayer and if the relationship warrants it, touch them. Hold their hand, put your hand on their arm or shoulder, because this may be the only tenderness they ever experience.
• Finally, I often ask the one who has asked me to pray for them, if they are also praying for themselves. It’s easy to expect someone else to do what I’m too lazy to do for myself. Corrie Ten Boom quote ~ “Dear Jesus…how foolish of me to have called for human help when You are here.

Lord, You know that effective prayer takes time.  I need Your help knowing whose spiritual soil is tilled and ready. Amen