Oh how I wish I could see time like God

This morning I got up at the crack of dawn, grabbed a quick bite to give myself energy for my morning run. It is a great time of year here in the mid-Atlantic. Mornings are nice and crisp, not yet muggy like we will experience in July and August. I went to retrieve my iPod when I thought about yesterday's post. I decided to leave the iPod behind so that I may concentrate on interceding for those along my route. I wanted to remove all distractions that might inhibit my goal of being a prayer intercessor.

If you will recall, I mentioned yesterday how John DeVries book "Why Pray?" has given me some extra inspiration as I read through the 40 days. His prayer walking has inspired me to prayer run, shining a spotlight on areas for God to look down upon and care for the needs of the community. Praying for members of the different households is not easy as you run by. Contrary to walking at a nice brisk pace where you have ample time to reflect on each house, running does not quite afford that luxury. I pray for groups of houses. Maybe it is an entire block, maybe just one or two at a time.

My real challenge was in trying to pray for those in vehicles as they passed by. On the side streets in my immediate neighborhood, this was quite easy to keep up with, especially at 6AM, with only a few cars here and there. But there is a stretch of road on my route that is very busy at that time of morning. Again, I had to alter my plan. I could not pray for each vehicle occupant individually, but I could pray for a group of vehicles collectively. Yes, that is exactly what I did. I will admit that part of my prayers centered around keeping them focused on the task at hand. You are at their mercy when running on the shoulder of the road. One distraction and I could end up meeting up with Jesus much sooner then I had anticipated. But my real goal was to pray for their safety and that each one will remain strong in faith.

All this got me thinking about how incredible God is to be able to care for each one of us individually. My pastor has said on multiple occasions that God's time is much different than our perception of time. And it really has to because if not our lives would seem like those vehicles passing me by at 50 miles per hour. How can God give us the individual attention that we need? Because the Bible tells us, that is how.

Think about this today. In Hebrews, the unknown author lays out how Jesus fulfills the Jewish prophecies and they refute the need for the old Jewish worship practices. We find in chapter 7, verse 25 "Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." Did you catch the word intercede? Jesus intercedes for all of us if we go to God through Him. Can you imagine the amount of work that must take, one person interceding for all of us. Does that make your intercession efforts for a much smaller group, your close friends, families, mission workers, colleagues, a little more attainable? Jesus intercedes daily in our lives because we ask him to. When we ask with His will in mind, He will answer and provide. Think about how powerful that is and take time, a lot of time, out of your busy day to intercede for others. Pray that all may have this same intercession from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

God Bless you!

For those of you following the progress of PrayerSteward, the Blackberry version is currently undergoing Alpha testing. We hope to have a general availability date within the next week. Go to www.prayersteward.com to keep up to date on our progress.