Intercessory Prayer

January 17, 2007

Genesis 18
30 Then Abraham said, "O may the Lord not be angry, and I will speak.
What if only thirty are found there?" The Lord said, "I will not do it
if I find thirty there."
31 Abraham said, "Now see, I have taken upon myself to speak to the
Lord. What if twenty are found there?" The Lord said, "I will not
destroy it because of the twenty."
32 Then Abraham said, "O may the Lord not be angry. And I may speak
once more. What if ten are found there?" The Lord said, "I will not
destroy it because of the ten."
33 Then the Lord went on His way when He finished speaking with
Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

I often wonder why Abraham stopped at 10. He must have had a fairly
good idea that the only people that were righteous were Lot, Lot's
wife and their children, that is only four people. So why stop at 10,
why not get them all rescued. Then they could be saved later. But he
stopped at 10. Maybe God just turned away and said that's it no more.
All we have record of is that they both just went on their way.

I see Abraham's prayer here as a sort of Intercessory prayer. I have
been told that you pray for people till the burden is lifted. Did
Abraham start out to get Lot saved and stopped when he got the burden
lifted and that is why Lot went free? Or did God plan it all in
advance. Was He testing Abraham as He later did when Issac was born?

Pray for others. It is important, especially if God puts it on your
heart to. I woke up in the middle of the night almost 30 years ago
with a burden to pray for a man that I knew was 1/2 way around the
world on a short missions trip. When he got home a few months later we
compared notes when he came to speak at my church. Found out with the
time change and all, that the day and hours that I was praying for
him, he was sick and the doctors thought he would die. When my burden
lifted was about the time the sickness changed for the better. Now I
do not tell you this to glorify myself. I show that their is power in
your prayer. If I had said a few quick prayers and rolled over and
went back to bed, what would have happened to him?

God gives you someone to pray for, pray till the burden is lifted.

Read through the Bible in historical order in one year:
Today
Genesis 16:1-18:33
Tomorrow
Genesis 19:1-21:34