Lent: Deepening our prayer lives
Week 5: Interceding

Sermon Date: March 29th
Reading: Esther 4
 
Please start by reading the passage (Esther 4) together.
 
Study
 
The story of Esther is set at a time when the Jews have been living under Persian rule for some time.  They have come to terms with the Persian rule, and yet still maintain a sense of identity as Jews, being a ‘set apart’ people. It is generally accepted by scholars to be a tale or narration designed for instruction rather than a historical report but it is nevertheless rooted in historical, political and cultural reality.
 
It is quite noticeable the Israelites (or Jews as they are now calling themselves) do not cry out directly to God in their distress as they did in slavery or in the Wilderness. Instead it is Esther who intercedes with the King on their behalf – she will plead for their lives. Although the story is not about someone interceding with God, there are still things that we can draw from this passage about how we might intercede with God for others:
 
Esther 4: 4 When Esther first hears about Mordecai’s state of mourning and weeping, her initial response in trying to help is to send clothes. But this isn’t what Mordecai needs and he refuses to put them on. In her distress and compassion, she was perhaps too quick to assume what was needed and tried to provide a ‘fix’ for the situation.
 
Q. 1    Can you think of a time when you have tried to help someone, but what you did, said or provided wasn’t what they needed? (Perhaps because you have rushed in too quickly and assumed you know what would help?)
 
Esther 4: 5 Esther realises she needs to understand what is underlying, Mordecai’s distressed state, so she sends Hathak to find out what is troubling him and why.  Then in verses 7-9 Esther receives back the full detail of what has happened, along with the request to go to the King and plead for the lives of her people.
 
Q. 2     why do you think it is easier to pray for a situation when you have more information available to you about the situation itself?
 
Sometimes we have to make do with the information we have been given, get praying, and trust that God already knows the rest. When we pray it’s good to hold in mind that we are not telling God anything He does not already know, but having more information about a given situation can help us to pray more intelligently and in a more focused way, enabling us to know what would be good to ask God for (rather than making a quick surface-level assumption about what would be a good ‘fix’ for the problem).
 
Esther 4: 11 For Esther approaching the King without having first been summoned could result in her death. Interceding on behalf of her people is extremely risky for her.
 
Q. 3     Have you ever been asked to pray for someone or a particular situation and felt afraid to do it? Why did you feel afraid to pray? What happened?
 
We are not in the same situation as Esther, as we do not need to fear for our lives when approaching God in prayer to intercede for others or for our nation. We can however still find that we are fearful about praying/interceding for other people for different reasons. It may be that we are afraid we won’t find the right words to say, or because we are afraid the prayer request might not be granted and hopes would be dashed or faith diminished. There are all kinds of reasons we can feel afraid to intercede or pray for someone else, but it's important we don't allow these fears to stop us from praying. John Pritchard writes:
          "Christians easily get on a guilt trip about so-called 'unanswered prayer' (which does not exist - all prayer is used by God in some way). God is not waiting until we 'crack the code'        and pray the right words. He does not hold off until we have built up a particular 'weight' of prayer and then give in....He is the Prodigal's father, racing towards us at top speed. If our       prayer does not seem to have changed anything, it is more likely we are up against the intrinsic limitations of a physical world which has its own created independence. And we should look more deeply: something will certainly have changed, although we can never predict what that will be."
 
Esther 4: 16 Esther realises she must act, and instructs Mordecai to gather all the Jews and fast for three days before she approaches the king. She and her maids will do the same. Although God isn't mentioned here, this is nevertheless about taking seriously the task she is about to undertake. This is about the Jews humbling themselves before God, and demonstrating their absolute dependence, on Him.  As Esther says at the end of verse 16 "...and if I perish, I perish." This isn't fatalism, but trust. She knows what she must do and she will trust God for the outcome, whatever that may be.
 
Q. 4    have you ever considered fasting? If you have fasted, (or regularly) fast, does it help you to pray? What difference does it make to your faith and prayer life? Perhaps you'd like to share with your group.  
 
Q. 5    as you pray or intercede for difficult situations do you trust that God will act, even if it is not an obvious answer to your prayer?
 
Romans 8: 31 says "If God is for us, who can be against us?" We can pray with confidence, knowing that God will use our prayers for good. We may not know precisely what will happen, but if "God is for us" then in some way, our prayers will make a difference, and the situation we pray for will be changed. Let's not be afraid to pray for challenging, heartbreaking, and seemingly impossible situations in our world, nation, local community, the church, and for individuals we know.
 
Practical activity
(Taken from "The Intercessions Handbook" by John Pritchard. There are a number of creative ways to intercede given in this book for use in: public worship, all-age worship, in small groups and in personal prayer. It's well worth a read if you want to find new, creative ways to engage in intercessory prayer. )
 
Resources needed:

• Newspapers – preferably from the day of your house group (or you could bring up stories from the day on your phones if you don’t have any papers available but try not to get digitally distracted by other things!)

• to relate our prayers to concrete situations rather than just general vague themes
• to work out what we really want to pray for in challenging and demanding situations

1. divide up into small groups of two or three and give each group a newspaper
2. get each group to choose one or two stories that they want to pray about
3. each group discusses how they could pray for the particular stories they have chosen; e.g. how bold or specific to be; what they really want to pray for in a heart breaking situation; who they should pray for in any given situation (i.e. victim/perpetrator, hero of the story, witnesses, family, those working to resolve something, the wider community or country and so on….); how to pray without telling God things He already knows or without trying to educate the rest of the room; how you can bring your concerns in line with God’s loving purposes for his creation, and so on.
4. Get back together after about 15 minutes to share your prayers together: each group reads out the headline or first paragraph of the story first, followed by the form of prayer that the group felt was appropriate to that situation. Each person may have a story they want to pray about, or it may only be one story per small group.
5. at the end, invite everyone to lay their stories/articles in the middle of the group, and the house group leader offers up a ‘collecting-up’ prayer to close

Leah Perona-Wright