Prayer, Intercession, and Forgiveness

Following a fantastic guy's weekend with my dear friends in CRU, I feel like I need to blog about prayer. Prayer holds different meanings and weights in different people's lives. For me, prayer means communicating with God. It is the only way to develop a relationship with God and His Son Jesus Christ. Without prayer, we cannot know God, and if we do not know God, how can we know His will for our life? “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’" - Matthew 7:21-23. This is one of those verses that people like to ignore, because it is a hard teaching, but "All scripture is God breathed." So, before I get labeled a hypocrite, let me confirm that our salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ alone. But, because we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, we are forever changed because we are then filled with the Holy Spirit, who begins to work in our heart and change us from the inside out. By regularly praying, the Holy Spirit grows inside you, helping you see and follow God's will for your life, and when you follow God's will for your life, you go to Heaven. So, that being said, let me talk a little bit about intercessory prayer and forgiveness. Intercession, according to wikipedia, is "intervening or mediating between two parties". For Christians, this is praying to God on someone else's behalf, usually someone who would not pray for themselves, or someone who is not a Christian. It does not have to be for someone who would not pray for themselves, but it just, at least for me, always seems to be. In my mind, intercession and forgiveness go hand in hand. The best example that I have is when my car got broken into and my stuff stolen a few weeks ago. In my mind, I was frustrated and annoyed, but not hateful for some reason. After trying to clean up a bit and putting garbage bags over the broken window, I decided to have some Time Alone With God (TAWG) to see what God had to say about the issue. I found myself forgiving whoever it was that broke and stole my stuff and praying that God would forgive them and help them and that they could use the money they got from selling my stuff to better themselves and not to use it for self-detrimental things like alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs. To me, I don't know how you could pray for God to forgive someone who you yourself have not forgiven, it just does not make much sense. Regardless, 'forgiving those who trespass against us' is one of the many things we are called to do as Christians. And praying for them is in the Bible many places I am sure, I just do not know of one off hand. Anyway, that's my two cents. Have a fantastic week!
His,
Bryan Britt
Proverbs 3:5-6