Territory Prayer

"Would you pray for me?"

I can feel the stress rise in my neck as it prickles to the base of my hairline.

It is not the request. It is not that I don't want to. I don't want to be the one that says, "Yes," to what I feel is an important responsibility and then fail to remember or find time to pray for that request.

There are strategies for avoiding this failure. Scroll your Facebook, Instagram, <insert current social media flavour-of-the-week here> and pray while reading. I have also rattled off a bunch of names at the end of the prayer to make sure people were covered. These strategies do not make me feel spiritually connected to God.

Today, during prayer, I listened. I trusted that God has my requests and those requests of the people I know covered. I read Jeremiah Chapter 1.

The Lord positions Jeremiah to speak to the people of Judah, who are living ungodly lives. In the passage God twice asks Jeremiah what he sees. The first time, Jeremiah sees an almond tree, a branch used in the tabernacle as a symbol of priestly divinity and their responsibilities over the people. Jeremiah is appointed to Judah. The second time, Jeremiah sees a boiling pot, facing away from the north. The boiling pot is a attack on the city of Judah, a judgment for wrong. The chapter ends with assurance that God will deliver Judah from the attack and their wrongdoings.

Jeremiah came after a period of silence. It had been 70 years since the last prophet, Nahum.

Judah is a territory to which Jeremiah was appointed. When I feel like there are too many fiery darts of oppression headed toward my territory (the prayer needs), the Bible tells me to take up the shield of faith to quench these darts (Ephesians 6:16). We are pressed, but not destroyed. We experience a delivery to death that the life of Jesus may also deliver life in us (2 Corinthians 4:8-11).

"Would you pray for me?"

Yes.

I hold the needs of my territory in faith. And, sometimes, I need not utter a word.