Intercessory Prayer

What is my request? Do I ask God to do what I want? Or do I ask for His will to be done? What is my request when someone asks for prayer for a sick loved one? Do I ask God to make them well? What if it is God's will for that person to go home to be with Him? Intercessory prayer is a concept with which I struggle at times. Above all, I want God's will to be done. What would be the point of asking for anything else? Perhaps more good could come from a battle with a person's health than if He simply healed them at the moment we asked? Only He knows and sees the divine possibilities.

I've prayed many intercessory prayers. Intercessory prayer is biblical. If it is important to others and I am asked to pray, I will pray. However, at the end of any intercessory prayer I will ask above all else that God's will be done.

I know God's mind can be changed. It happened in the Bible. It did. For that reason, I ask for many things that I am not certain if God wants or doesn't. Yet, in the end, I submit it all to God's will. That example came directly from Jesus. He asked the Heavenly Father not to have to endure the cross, but ultimately that God's will be done. I follow that model. I struggle with it sometimes. Struggling is not a problem; it is OK. Despite the occasional struggle with my own understanding, I follow my model: Christ.

"Therefore faith prays in such a manner that it commits everything to the gracious will of God; it lets [God] determine whether it is conducive to his honor and to our benefit." (Martin Luther, in a sermon on Matt. 8:1-13.)