Hard Intercession
by Cynthia Bezek, editor of Pray! 
A month ago the Lord prompted me to pray some hard things for a Christian leader for whom I pray regularly. I’d picked up on some things in the way he talked about himself and his ministry that concerned me. But still, I really didn’t want to pray for God to humble him. To do so seemed harsh and even a bit arrogant. In fact, I argued with the Lord some and questioned Him to make sure I was hearing right. But the Holy Spirit reassured me, reminding me that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble�?(Jas. 4:6). I cared a lot about this leader—that’s why I pray for him in the first place—and I very much wanted God to give him grace, so I went ahead and prayed. First, I asked God to humble me in any ways necessary; then, very simply, I asked God to do any humbling that was necessary in the leader so that He could lavish him with grace.

A few weeks later, the news broke that a prominent high-profile pastor and evangelical Christian leader had been dismissed from his ministries because of sin. I was as shocked, angry, and heartbroken as anyone else. As I prayed about these events, the Lord reminded me of the hard prayer He had directed me to pray earlier. I can say it in no other way than that the fear of the Lord came over me. I realized that we need people to pray hard prayers for us. I do. Our pastors and leaders do. God calls us to walk humbly with Him (Mic. 6:8), yet we all have blind spots that prevent us from doing this. We need help from God and our friends to keep us living in humble dependence upon Him.

Through these insights, God reassured me that difficult intercession like the kind He'd asked me to do is necessary and, ultimately, loving. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend�?(KJV). I’m starting to see that the same idea applies to the hard prayers we pray for our pastors, leaders, and others we care about. Those prayers are a kind of faithful, tough love that acts in order to keep them from falling and to make them the kind of people God can use and bless.

With that in mind, would you please pray for me?