Get the appUnlearning PrayerSample
GETTING OVER YOURSELF
KEY VERSE
"The Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words." Romans 8:26
Asking for things in prayer (sometimes called intercession) is awkward. We feel selfish praying for ourselves. We feel helpless praying for others, especially when “others” means a war, a famine, a child in danger somewhere we’ll never go. We’re not sure our prayers do anything. That honest doubt is actually quite healthy. It just needs redirecting.
Because intercession, at its best, is not about changing God's mind, it's about changing your position. The Desert Mothers described the monk as one who is 'separated from all and united to all': withdrawn from the world precisely in order to hold the world before God.
Rowan Williams defines intercession as placing yourself where the need is, in the presence of God. You stand with others. That’s it. That’s the prayer.
THE PRACTICE
Think of one person you are carrying concern for. Close your eyes. Picture them standing next to you in a room filled with warm light. Don’t ask God to fix anything. Don’t explain the situation. Simply hold them in the light, and say:
“I place [Name] in your presence.”
Hold them there for one full minute.
Scripture
About this Plan
Prayer is strange territory. Some of us arrive here with decades of practice and still aren’t sure we’re doing it right. Some of us arrive carrying a long silence; years where prayer felt hollow, or pointless, or just absent. And some of us arrive simply curious. Drawing on the gritty wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers and on the profound theological insight of Rowan Williams, these six devotions are about one thing: experimenting. Letting go of the habits, expectations, and performance anxieties and embracing some new ways and allowing space for a new openness to God to grow.
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We would like to thank Ashburton Baptist Church for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: https://www.ashburtonbaptist.org.au/
