#1 An Urgent Need
Here intercession has its origin. The friend came at midnight—an untimely hour. He was hungry, and could not buy bread. If we are to learn to pray properly, we must open our eyes and heart to the need around us.
We often hear of the missions of unsaved souls living in midnight darkness, perishing for lack of the Bread of life. We also hear of the many nominal Christians who are almost as unenlightened and indifferent as those who are unsaved. We see millions in the Christian Church who know little of a walk in the light of God or in the power of a life fed by bread from heaven. We all have our own circles—congregations, schools, friends, missions—in which the great complaint is that the light and life of God are too little known. Surely, if we believe what we profess—that God alone is able to help, that God certainly will help in answer to prayer—all this need ought to make us intercessors, people who give their lives to prayer for those around them.
Let us take time to seriously consider this need. Each Christless soul will go down into utter darkness, perishing from hunger, even though there is bread to spare. Unknown millions of souls are dying without the knowledge of Christ. Our own neighbors and friends—souls entrusted to us—are dying without hope. Christians all around us are living a sickly, feeble, and fruitless spiritual life. Surely there is a need for prayer. Nothing but prayer to God for help will avail.
We often hear of the missions of unsaved souls living in midnight darkness, perishing for lack of the Bread of life. We also hear of the many nominal Christians who are almost as unenlightened and indifferent as those who are unsaved. We see millions in the Christian Church who know little of a walk in the light of God or in the power of a life fed by bread from heaven. We all have our own circles—congregations, schools, friends, missions—in which the great complaint is that the light and life of God are too little known. Surely, if we believe what we profess—that God alone is able to help, that God certainly will help in answer to prayer—all this need ought to make us intercessors, people who give their lives to prayer for those around them.
Let us take time to seriously consider this need. Each Christless soul will go down into utter darkness, perishing from hunger, even though there is bread to spare. Unknown millions of souls are dying without the knowledge of Christ. Our own neighbors and friends—souls entrusted to us—are dying without hope. Christians all around us are living a sickly, feeble, and fruitless spiritual life. Surely there is a need for prayer. Nothing but prayer to God for help will avail.
#2 The Willing Love
The friend took his weary, hungry friend into his house and into his heart, too. He did not excuse himself by saying he had no bread; even though it was midnight, he went to find some for him. He sacrificed his night’s rest and his comfort to find the needed bread. “Love seeketh not its own” (1 Corinthians 13:4). It is the very nature of love to give up and forget self for the sake of others. It takes their needs and makes them its own, finding its real joy in living and dying for others, as Christ did.
It is the love of a mother for her prodigal son that makes her pray for him. The true love in us will become the spirit of intercession. It is possible to do a great deal of faithful, earnest work for our brothers and sisters without having true love for them. Take into consideration a physician who may be thoroughly interested in his patients, yet does not feel any special love for them. This comes from a love of his profession and a high sense of faithfulness to his duty. In the same way, servants of Christ may devote themselves to their work with self-sacrificing enthusiasm, without their Christlike love for souls being strong enough. It is the lack of love that causes so much shortcoming in prayer. Only as our love of diligence and thoroughness in our prayer-work dissolves in tender compassion of Christ, will true love begin compelling us to pray. We will then not be able to rest from our work if there are still souls who are not saved. True love must pray.
It is the love of a mother for her prodigal son that makes her pray for him. The true love in us will become the spirit of intercession. It is possible to do a great deal of faithful, earnest work for our brothers and sisters without having true love for them. Take into consideration a physician who may be thoroughly interested in his patients, yet does not feel any special love for them. This comes from a love of his profession and a high sense of faithfulness to his duty. In the same way, servants of Christ may devote themselves to their work with self-sacrificing enthusiasm, without their Christlike love for souls being strong enough. It is the lack of love that causes so much shortcoming in prayer. Only as our love of diligence and thoroughness in our prayer-work dissolves in tender compassion of Christ, will true love begin compelling us to pray. We will then not be able to rest from our work if there are still souls who are not saved. True love must pray.
#3 The Sense of Impotence
We often speak of the power of love. In one sense, love does not have power; but this truth has its limitations, which must not be forgotten. The strongest love may be utterly impotent. A mother might be willing to give her life for her dying child, and yet not be able to save it. The friend at midnight was most willing to give his friend bread, but he had none. It was the sense of impotence [powerlessness], of his inability to help, that sent him pleading: “My friend is come to me, and I have nothing set before him.” This sense of impotence with God’s servants is the very strength of the life of intercession.
I may have knowledge and truth, a loving heart, and a readiness to give myself for those under my charge; but I cannot give them the bread of heaven. Despite all my love and zeal, “I have nothing to set before them.” Blessed is the man who has made that “I have nothing” the motto of his ministry: As he thinks of the judgment day and the danger in it for unsaved souls, as he realizes that a supernatural power and life is necessary to save men from sin, as he feels his utter inadequacy to give them life, that “I have nothing” urges him to pray.
Let us take this lesson to heart, as a warning to all those who are strong and wise, and for the encouragement of those who are weak: The sense of our impotence is the soul of intercession. The simplest, weakest Christian can pray down blessings from an Almighty God.
I may have knowledge and truth, a loving heart, and a readiness to give myself for those under my charge; but I cannot give them the bread of heaven. Despite all my love and zeal, “I have nothing to set before them.” Blessed is the man who has made that “I have nothing” the motto of his ministry: As he thinks of the judgment day and the danger in it for unsaved souls, as he realizes that a supernatural power and life is necessary to save men from sin, as he feels his utter inadequacy to give them life, that “I have nothing” urges him to pray.
Let us take this lesson to heart, as a warning to all those who are strong and wise, and for the encouragement of those who are weak: The sense of our impotence is the soul of intercession. The simplest, weakest Christian can pray down blessings from an Almighty God.
# 4 The Faith in Prayer
What he does not have himself, another can supply. He has a rich friend near, who will be both able and willing to give him bread. He is sure that if he only asks, he will receive. This faith makes him leave his home at midnight. He knows that, when he does not have any to give, he can ask his friend.
We need this simple, confident faith that God will give us what we ask for. Where it really exists, there will be no mistake about whether or not we should pray. God’s Word provides everything needed to stir and strengthen such faith in us. Just as the heaven our natural eyes can see is one great ocean of sunshine, with its light and heat, giving beauty and fruitfulness to earth, Scripture shows us God’s true heaven, filled with spiritual blessings—Divine light, love, and life, heavenly joy, peace, and power—all shining down on us. It shows us how God is waiting, delighting to bestow these blessings in answer to prayer. In a thousand promises and testimonies, it urges us to believe that prayer will be heard, and that what we cannot possibly do ourselves for those whom we want to help, can be done by prayer. Have no doubt that prayer will be heard, that, through prayer, the poorest and weakest can dispense blessings to the needy, and that each of us, though poor, may yet be making many rich.
We need this simple, confident faith that God will give us what we ask for. Where it really exists, there will be no mistake about whether or not we should pray. God’s Word provides everything needed to stir and strengthen such faith in us. Just as the heaven our natural eyes can see is one great ocean of sunshine, with its light and heat, giving beauty and fruitfulness to earth, Scripture shows us God’s true heaven, filled with spiritual blessings—Divine light, love, and life, heavenly joy, peace, and power—all shining down on us. It shows us how God is waiting, delighting to bestow these blessings in answer to prayer. In a thousand promises and testimonies, it urges us to believe that prayer will be heard, and that what we cannot possibly do ourselves for those whom we want to help, can be done by prayer. Have no doubt that prayer will be heard, that, through prayer, the poorest and weakest can dispense blessings to the needy, and that each of us, though poor, may yet be making many rich.
#5 The Importunity That Prevails
The faith of the friend meets a sudden and unexpected obstacle: the rich friend refuses to hear—“I cannot rise and give thee.” The loving heart had not counted on this disappointment; it cannot accept it. The supplicant presses his threefold plea: here is my needy friend; you have abundance; I am your friend, and refuses to accept a denial. The love that opened his house at midnight, and then left it to seek help, must win.
This is the central lesson of the parable. In our intercession, we may find that there is difficulty and delay with the answer. It may be as if God says, “I cannot…give thee.” It is not easy, against all appearances, to maintain our confidence that He will hear, and to persevere in full assurance that we will have what we ask for. And yet, this is what God looks for from us. He so highly prizes our confidence in Him, it is so essentially the highest honor the creature can show the Creator, that He will do anything to train us in the exercise of this trust in Him. Blessed is the man who is not staggered by God’s delay or silence or apparent refusal, but is strong in faith, giving glory to God. Such faith perseveres, importunately, if need be, and cannot fail to inherit the blessing.
This is the central lesson of the parable. In our intercession, we may find that there is difficulty and delay with the answer. It may be as if God says, “I cannot…give thee.” It is not easy, against all appearances, to maintain our confidence that He will hear, and to persevere in full assurance that we will have what we ask for. And yet, this is what God looks for from us. He so highly prizes our confidence in Him, it is so essentially the highest honor the creature can show the Creator, that He will do anything to train us in the exercise of this trust in Him. Blessed is the man who is not staggered by God’s delay or silence or apparent refusal, but is strong in faith, giving glory to God. Such faith perseveres, importunately, if need be, and cannot fail to inherit the blessing.
#6 The Certainty of a Rich Reward
I say unto you,…because of his importunity [something that someone insists upon having] he will…give him as many as he needeth.” If we could only learn to believe in the certainty of an abundant answer! A prophet of old said: “Let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded” (2 Chronicles 15:7). Those who find it difficult to pray should fix their eyes on the reward, and, in faith, learn to trust the Divine assurance that their prayer cannot be in vain. If we can come to believe in God and His faithfulness, intercession will become the very first thing we take refuge in when we seek blessing for others, and the very last thing for which we cannot find time. And it will become a thing of joy and hope, because, all the time we pray, we know that we are sowing seed that will bring forth fruit a hundred-fold. Disappointment is impossible: “I say unto you,…he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.”
Take courage! Time spent in prayer will yield more than that given to work. Prayer alone gives work its worth and its success. Prayer opens the way for God Himself to do His work in us and through us. Let our chief work, as God’s messengers, be intercession; in it, we secure the presence and power of God to go with us.
“Which of you shall have a friend…at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves?” This Friend is none other but our God. Do let us learn that in the darkness of midnight—at the most unlikely time and in our greatest need—when we have “nothing to set before” those we love, we have a rich Friend in heaven, the Everlasting God and Father, who is waiting to be asked for help. Let us confess our lack of prayer before Him, admitting that it proves our weak faith, and is the symptom of a life that is still too much under the power of self, the flesh, and the world. The Lord Jesus, who related this parable of the Friend at midnight, waits to make us all importunate friends.
Therefore, let us give ourselves to be intercessors. Let us cry with importunity to God when we see people who need help, when the spirit of compassion stirs within us, when we feel our own powerlessness to help, or when we see obstacles in the way of our getting an answer. God alone can help. And in answer to prayer, He will help. In addition, we should do our utmost to train the next generation of Christians in what we have learned. Let us teach those who come after us how to enter the good land—the blessed life of unceasing prayer. Moses could not enter the land of Canaan, but there was one thing he could do—he could, at God’s bidding, “charge Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him (Deuteronomy 3:28).
The model of intercessor is the model Christian worker. The secret of successful work is to give away daily what we ourselves are receiving from God. Intercession is the blessed link between our impotence and God’s omnipotence.
Luke 11:9-13 NIV
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Take courage! Time spent in prayer will yield more than that given to work. Prayer alone gives work its worth and its success. Prayer opens the way for God Himself to do His work in us and through us. Let our chief work, as God’s messengers, be intercession; in it, we secure the presence and power of God to go with us.
“Which of you shall have a friend…at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves?” This Friend is none other but our God. Do let us learn that in the darkness of midnight—at the most unlikely time and in our greatest need—when we have “nothing to set before” those we love, we have a rich Friend in heaven, the Everlasting God and Father, who is waiting to be asked for help. Let us confess our lack of prayer before Him, admitting that it proves our weak faith, and is the symptom of a life that is still too much under the power of self, the flesh, and the world. The Lord Jesus, who related this parable of the Friend at midnight, waits to make us all importunate friends.
Therefore, let us give ourselves to be intercessors. Let us cry with importunity to God when we see people who need help, when the spirit of compassion stirs within us, when we feel our own powerlessness to help, or when we see obstacles in the way of our getting an answer. God alone can help. And in answer to prayer, He will help. In addition, we should do our utmost to train the next generation of Christians in what we have learned. Let us teach those who come after us how to enter the good land—the blessed life of unceasing prayer. Moses could not enter the land of Canaan, but there was one thing he could do—he could, at God’s bidding, “charge Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him (Deuteronomy 3:28).
The model of intercessor is the model Christian worker. The secret of successful work is to give away daily what we ourselves are receiving from God. Intercession is the blessed link between our impotence and God’s omnipotence.
Luke 11:9-13 NIV
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
¹Andrew Murray, “The Ministry of Intercession” (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1982), 35–41. Used with permission. All rights reserved. www.whitakerhouse.com.