"Let's Pray"

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the need around us.  When the gospel writer Mark told his story about Jesus, he began it with a series of healing stories.  Jesus healed a few, like the man with the unclean spirit and Simon's mother-in-law, and the word got out.  Nothing spreads faster than people talking in the streets.  In a relatively short time after the healing took place in the home of Simon's kinswoman, "...the whole city was gathered around the door."  (Mark 1:33)  The Word says Jesus healed many, but interestingly enough did not use the word all.  Apparently some left without being healed.      

As the story unfolds, Jesus calls it a night, but is up before everyone else in the house.  He quietly leaves in the darkness and goes to a deserted place where He could be alone to pray.  While the Word gives us no clue what was on His mind, it is easy enough to imagine that the evening before when so many clamored for healing was an overwhelming time.  It was a time for important decisions to be made about the road ahead.  Should He stay or go?  By the time the disciples got up, washed their faces, and found Him, He knew what to do, "Let us go to the neighboring towns..."     

We are all called to live with the heart of an intercessor.  We are all called to realize that there are many around us who need a touch of compassion, an ear for listening, and a moment of intercessory prayer.  What often happens to us is that our prayer list, or our list of people for whom we have said we will pray becomes so lengthy that we end up being overcome by the many and end up praying for none.  Even as Jesus realized He could only do what He could do, so is such a moment of truth necessary for us if we are to maintain our spiritual integrity.  I have a friend who responds to requests for prayer not by putting a name on a prayer list, but by immediately saying, "Let's pray now" and doing it wherever the situation has taken them.  Maybe his model is not the only way, but it is a way that could bring us to a more focused and disciplined time of intercessory prayer.