The motive behind all true intercessory prayer is love for the other. Jesus isn’t describing some real-life version of wishes to a cosmic genie that occasionally come true if you figure out the formula. He’s talking about the kind of prayers that start with love for someone else and end with inviting God’s activity into places where that love is lacking. Intercession is a willing and intentional choice to turn from the endless spiral into the self—my desires, my needs, my circumstances—to the desires, needs, and circumstances of another. To utter even a syllable of intercessory prayer is a
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