Helpful or Heartless Toward Others? -Chambers

It is Christ . . . who also makes intercession for us. . . . the Spirit . . . makes intercession for the saints . . . —Romans 8:34, 27 Do we need any more arguments than these to become intercessors-that Christ "always lives to make intercession" ( Hebrews 7:25 ), and that the Holy Spirit "makes intercession for the saints"? Are we living in such a relationship with others that we do the work of intercession as a result of being the children of God who are taught by His Spirit? We should take a look at our current circumstances. Do crises which affect us or others in our home, business, country, or elsewhere, seem to be crushing in on us? Are we being pushed out of the presence of God and left with no time for worship? If so, we must put a stop to such distractions and get into such a living relationship with God that our relationship with others is maintained through the work of intercession, where God works His miracles. Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will. We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities, becoming so burdened with people and problems that we don’t worship God, and we fail to intercede. If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness toward God and despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people in whom we have no interest, and unless we are worshiping God the natural tendency is to be heartless toward them. We give them a quick verse of Scripture, like jabbing them with a spear, or leave them with a hurried, uncaring word of counsel before we go. A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to our Lord. Are our lives in the proper place so that we may participate in the intercession of our Lord and the Holy Spirit? more info: http://www.rbc.org/utmost/

Do crises which affect us or others in our home, business, country, or elsewhere, seem to be crushing in on us? There is a caution that I would like to present regarding the burdens and cares that we carry – even in our prayer life. As live moves on, we become more and more aware of sin around us - so much that we find ourselves carrying a heavy load or concern. Cyberspace enables our vision to expand considerably, and we become aware of even more sins - sinful people, sinful organizations, heresies, false teachings - more than we ever could imagine before. We can become increasingly weighed down with an overwhelming abundance of cares and concerns. Our intercessions can be more than we can bear. Yet we are called to partner with God in our burden. How can we handle all this without busting to pieces? The following verse comes to mind: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you REST. For my YOKE is easy and my burden is light." Mat. 11:28This is: the proper place so that we may participate in the intercession of our Lord and the Holy Spirit What we must learn is that Christ bears the weight of the yoke. We can't, and we are not called to do that. Perhaps that is what is why God allows us to become aware of so many sin problems. We must learn to pull through to the other end and find the REST that Christ promised. He is the chief intercessor. We partner with him, but must not usurp the role. Those thoughts are not usually mentioned when we hear about prayer. Probably because few ever get to that depth of burden. They are barely awake. Many have never even begun to carry a burden. Scripture says that things will go from bad to worse. But it also teaches that God is in control - even of all the sin and its effects: 'He has turned them over to disobedience." He has blinded them, darkened their eyes.' etc. In other words we have been seeing the constant effects of God's judgments - his blessed judgments, I might add. "so that he may have mercy on them all." Romans 11:32Somewhere in of all this human misery and debauchery there is hope. And we must REST in that HOPE. That is a healthy perspective to have - emotionally, physically, and spiritually. When we are free from the need to “intercede” in the affairs of life with our fleshly energy, then we are free to love those who cross our path, no matter how we may feel about them. That is partnering with God - true intercession lived out.We stand between the sinner and the Savior - extending the hand of mercy on behalf of our Lord. Diane