Last Thursday morning before driving the twins to school, Annie and Emma and I had a quick prayer time.
On the way to the fireplace bricks, where we like to sit for such moments, Emma bumped her knee. It wasn’t even a scratch or a scrape and certainly nothing that merited the drama she was presenting. But then this is a kid who thinks she needs New Skin liquid bandage for a mosquito bite.
So we sit down on the bricks and I get one kid on each knee. Annie says she wants to pray first. “God, thank you for this day and for all the things you give us. I pray for Emma’s knee…
…God…I just lift her hurtness up to heaven.“
That’s it, isn’t it? That’s intercessory prayer as defined by an 8-year old. Lifting someone’s hurtness up to heaven.
In the course of your day you and I will engage with people at different levels of familiarity. Some will be intimately close to us. Others will be friends. Some acquaintances. Some strangers. Some will be point of sale transactions that consist of “press enter, please” and “thanks for shopping, have a good day.”
The common denominator? All have “hurtness” that needs lifting up to heaven.
In your life there are people who’ve just lost someone they love. A granite headstone marks the end of that earthly relationship. There’s a void in their every day. Lift their hurtness up to heaven.
There are couples you know who everyone points to as being the marriage they admire. Yet behind the white picket illusion are two people caught in the crazy cycle of conditional love and disrespect. Their relationship is spinning into a death spiral. Lift their hurtness up to heaven.
There’s a person you know who is always there for everyone. They give and give and give and always with a smile. Yet their servant’s heart is weary and they wonder if and when anyone will care enough to ask if they’ve got anything left in the tank. Write them a note of encouragement. And lift their hurtness up to heaven.
There’s a person in your church who’s all handshakes and hugs on Sunday morning who drives home in tears because she wants to go to church as a couple instead of a single. Lift her hurtness up to heaven.
There’s someone in your life who daily battles an addiction. Sometimes one minute at a time. Lift their hurtness up to heaven.
There’s someone in your life who’s doing everything they know to do yet still feel like they are losing the fight. Success is just around the corner that never seems to get turned. Lift their hurtness up to heaven.
There are people in your life in bondage to fear. Their past emotional wounds have locked them into thought patterns making it near impossible to imagine a life of joy and hope. Remind them that the future is their friend. And lift their hurtness up to heaven.
There are elderly people in your life who can no longer “do”. They can only “be”. They sit quietly alone wondering if their life is of significance to anyone. They are frustrated by minds and bodies that no longer function the way they used to. Go visit them. Ask them to tell you about their life. And lift their hurtness up to heaven.
There’s someone in your life who suffers from chronic pain. The medications that offer relief also handcuff them to dependency. Lift their hurtness up to heaven.
There’s someone in your life who’s just been severely let down by someone they thought they could count on. They feel like they are trapped in a revolving door of disappointment. Determine to be a person they can trust. And lift their hurtness up to heaven.
Often we overestimate what we can do and underestimate what God can do. When we intercede for others by lifting their hurtness to heaven, we bring their hurtness to God; the One who can do anything.
We can pray for people. God can heal people.
We can encourage people. God can change people.
We can point people to God. God will point them to Himself. In Him they, which is to say all of us, will find His abundant life.
As you go through your day, intercede for others.
Lift their hurtness up to heaven.
“Cast all your cares on God, for He cares for you.”
– 1 Peter 5:7
Todd A. Thompson – May 17, 2009
