“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:13-16, NIV).

I prayed for a dog today. I’m not a dog-lover; I’m a dog-liker, but I prayed for Hershey today. A young man who had fallen on hard times called me today, a friend I had not heard from in years, but I had prayed for him regularly. He had been carjacked with his 16-year-old “only friend I had left” dog in the back seat of his car. The police found his stripped-down car a long way from the carjacking, but his dog was not there.

How to we decide for whom and for what we pray?

When do we pray for dogs?

What do we pray for others?

For a long time, I’ve had a very long prayer list with people God has placed on my heart, some of whom I haven’t seen for years. Every now and then, one pops up and I see what my prayers have been all about. This young man is one of those pop-ups.

God clearly wants us to pray for others, but there are so many people and so little time. How do we choose? I left a ton of people off my prayer list today, and I prayed for a dog.

For whom do we pray? How do we pray for them??

I know our prayers are not a magic switch. We don’t hurt people if we drop them from our list unless God asks us to pray for them. We don’t earn people automatic favor if we name them, but somehow our intercessory prayers are important.

For some reason, God demands we pray for others. Somehow God uses our prayers both for our good and the good of those for whom we pray. God is not dependent on our prayers, but He does change lives for His glory because we pray.

As for the method of our praying, I know we should pray the Lord’s model prayer, and pray in faith, and pray with thanksgiving, and pray in repentance and pray without ceasing, but I’m not sure the method otherwise matters.

We don’t contrive a prayer plan that works well. Prayer doesn’t work; God works. I suspect that how we pray and who we pray for should rise from our hearts where the Holy Spirit dwells. We should cry out as He leads: “…For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26, ESV).

With this in mind, I think the best guidance for intercessory prayer is that we abide in Christ, develop His heart for the people around us and pray as the Holy Spirit leads.

I prayed for a dog so that this young man would know God loves him. His dog was found, and I was able to share with him the message of Jesus Christ.

Dear God,

Draw me to you in prayer. Move me to pray for others as your Spirit leads.

Amen