Helps to Intercession

By Andrew Murray

Looking for a way to jump-start your prayer life? You can’t do better than this one-month prayer journal by Andrew Murray, a well-known prayer warrior. In a learn-by-doing structure, Murray presents 31 days of suggested topics to pray for, along with a short “How to Pray” teaching. Additional space is provided each day for your own prayer requests and for journaling notes on what the Lord is teaching you about prayer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CLC Publications
• Release date: Oct 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781619581142

Andrew Murray

ANDREW MURRAY (1828-1917) was a church leader, evangelist, and missionary statesman. As a young man, Murray wanted to be a minister, but it was a career choice rather than an act of faith. Not until he had finished his general studies and begun his theological training in the Netherlands, did he experience a conversion of heart. Sixty years of ministry in the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa, more than 200 books and tracts on Christian spirituality and ministry, extensive social work, and the founding of educational institutions were some of the outward signs of the inward grace that Murray experienced by continually casting himself on Christ. A few of his books include The True Vine, Absolute Surrender, The School of Obedience, Waiting on God, and The Prayer Life.

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Helps to Intercession

INTRODUCTION

Helps to Intercession has been written to help believers to follow the Scriptural command to Pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). But how can we do this, you may ask, when we are surrounded by the cares of daily life?

We may as well ask how a mother can love her child without ceasing; how the eyelid can hold itself ready to protect the eye without ceasing; or how we can breathe and feel and hear without ceasing. All of these ceaseless activities are the functions of a healthy, natural life. And if our spiritual life is healthy, under the full power of the Holy Spirit, praying without ceasing will be natural as well.

Does praying without ceasing refer to continual acts of prayer, in which we are to persevere till we obtain, or to the spirit of prayerfulness that should animate us all day long? It includes both. The example of our Lord Jesus shows us this. We have to enter our closet for special seasons of prayer; we are at times to persevere there in persistent prayer. We are also to walk all day long in God’s presence, with the whole heart set upon heavenly things. Without set times of prayer, the spirit of prayer will be dull and feeble. Without continual prayerfulness, the set times will be of no use.

Does praying without ceasing refer to prayer for ourselves or others? To both. Those who confine prayer to themselves are doomed to failure. It is only when the branch gives itself to bear fruit, more fruit, much fruit, that it can live a healthy life, and expect a rich inflow of sap. The death of Christ brought Him to the place of everlasting intercession. Your death with Him to sin and self sets you free from the care of self, and elevates you to the dignity of intercessor—one who can get life and blessing from God for others.

Know your calling; begin your work. Give yourself wholly to it, and before you know it you will find this attitude of praying always (Eph. 6:18) within you. How can I learn to pray without ceasing? The best way of learning to do something—in fact the only way—is to do it. Begin by setting apart some time every day, say ten or fifteen minutes, in which you say to God and to yourself that you come to Him now as an intercessor for others. Let it be after your morning or evening devotions, or any other time. If you cannot set aside the same time every day, don’t worry about it. Just be sure to do your work. Christ chose you and appointed you to pray for others.

If at first you do not feel any special urgency or faith or power in your prayers, don’t let that stop you. Quietly tell your Lord Jesus of your weakness, believe that the Holy Spirit is in you to teach you to pray, and be assured that if you begin, God will help you. God cannot help you unless you begin and keep on. How do I know what to pray for? If you start to think of all the needs around you, you will soon find enough things to pray for! But to help you, this little book contains a month’s worth of suggestions