Compassion stokes the fire for intercessory prayer

³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:38-40 NIV.

Principle: Compassion stokes the fire for intercessory prayer

It was the summer of 1999 when Pam and I went to Honduras for a mission trip after they had received much damage from Hurricane Mitch.  Pam struggled with a tough decision to stop nursing Melody in order to go on the trip.  I was helping construct a new home for a church member who lost their home in a mud slide.  Pam and the other ladies were working with children at the school orphanage.  Many children came to the school had parents, but they were so impoverished they did not have the resources to adequately care for the health of the children.

On the second day, an older sister came back to the school carrying her very thin lifeless baby sister.  She told our interpreter that the baby had been at the hospital and pointed to the head where an IV had been.  But the hospital sent the baby home with the parents mostly likely believing the child was too sick to live.  She stands in front of the ladies ready to just hand the baby over.  A quick decision was made to collect some money and purchase some formula for the baby.  She was two years old, but was very thin with her stomach a little distended.  Her teeth were already in, but decaying from malnutrition.  When Pam held the baby the little girl looked Pam in the eye.  Pam felt milk release in her breast.  Suddenly, she thought, “I could feed this child and give her life.”  She asked a couple of more questions and found out that the mom was also malnourished causing her milk to dry up.  For the next 3 days Pam nursed Anna Raquel.  The sister would wait for each feeding to end and take the baby back home.  A few hours later she would return.  The ladies taught her how to prepare the formula to feed her little sister.  Life returned to Anna Raquel’s eyes and a peace returned to her body.  Pam prayed for the mom and family as we left to return home.  We have a picture of Anna Raquel on our fridge…as a reminder to pray for the people of Honduras

When Jesus looked over the mass of people he saw their hurt, lack of direction, and need.  Their helpless condition moved him in his inner being which resulted in the encouragement for people to pray for people to get involved in the harvest of hurting and lost.  Compassion awakens something inside us to respond to need and injustice.  Many of us watch a commercial on the cruelty of animals and know that we need to respond.  The commercial taps into our sense of injustice.  Feed the hungry does the same thing whether the children are from Africa, returning Jews to the homeland, or homeless people in America.  All of these commercials are appealing to an alignment of pain and injustice with inside us that motivates us to do something about it.  Usually give money.

Compassion is a great motivator for prayer.  It makes us face the question “how would I like someone to respond if I was living in that situation?”  Compassion helps us identify with not only the physical need but also the emotional pain that a person may be experiencing.  Our prayers gain new life as we pray for our friends who are experiencing and dealing with the loss of a close family member.  We may even be praying from the personal experience of losing one of our close relatives.

So how can we tap into compassion on a regular basis to assist us in praying?

1,  Ask the Lord to open your eyes and ears to the needs and difficulties that people are experiencing around you.  Most of us are consumed with our own need that we don’t have the time or energy to see other’s need.  It is like looking at a window and seeing our own reflection instead of the world beyond.

2.  When praying through your list of needs for others pause to ask questions.  Think for a moment how the person might be feeling.  What types of unanswered questions might be going through their mind?  Ask yourself what kinds of emotions would they be experiencing?  Is there a callousness that would need to be broken? 

3.  Ask the Lord what He thinks about the prayer need.  Ask Him how would he want you to pray for the situation.  This will teach you to listen to the Lord and pray His will over a concern.

4.  Ask God to expose a judgmental spirit that keeps you from identifying with another person’s failings.

Compassion helps us reengage our emotions to our prayers.  If your prayer time has grown flat, as the Lord to stir up compassion for the needs and hurts of others.  We live in a broken world, with many hurting people.  They are truly wandering around lost.  Unless God brings help, they will remain captive to the prisons of their own making with no opportunity for true freedom.

Father, help us connect with the emotion of compassion when we pray.  Help us remember our own times of desperation in which you brought us comfort.  Let us pray with empathy for those who are hurting.  Open our eyes to see the need that we pass by every day, but fail to acknowledge.  Help us identify a judgmental spirit inside us that squelches compassion.  Keep us from praying like the Pharisee, “thank you Lord, I am not like that man.”  Give us a heart to pray for others need knowing that you are already interceding for them.