1213 代禱
耶穌設一個比喻，是要人常常禱告，不可灰心。《路加福音18:1》
如果你不相信救贖的真實，你就無法真正地通過禱告來代求；相反，你只會把代求變成對他人毫無用處的同情，這隻會增加他們繼續保持與神斷絕聯繫的滿足感。真正的代禱包括把人或似乎正在向你襲來的處境帶到神面前，直到你被神對那人或那事的態度所改變。代禱意味着「補滿基督患難的缺欠」（歌羅西書 1:24），這正是代禱者如此之少的原因。人們這樣描述代禱：「代禱就是把自己放在某人的位置上。」這不是真的！代禱就是把自己放在神的位置上，代禱就是擁有祂的思想和祂的觀點。
作為代禱者，要小心，不要向神尋求太多關於你所代禱的處境的信息，因為你可能會重壓難當。如果你知道的太多，超過神指定讓你知道的，你就無法禱告；人們的境況變得如此強大，以至於你再也不能觸及潛在的真相。
我們的工作是與神保持如此密切聯繫，以至於我們可以有祂對每件事的心思，但我們用行動代替代禱而逃避那個責任。然而，代禱是唯一沒有缺點的事情，因為它使我們與神的關係完全敞開的。
我們在代禱中必須避免的是為某人禱告，只是要他被「修補包紮」。我們必須禱告那個人完全着實地接觸神的生命。想想神在我們的道路上帶來多少人，卻只看到我們把他們落下！當我們在救贖的根基上禱告時，神創造了只能通過代禱才能成就的事，此外別無他法。
來自章伯斯的智慧
沒有人能比耶穌在人際關係中有更敏銳的愛。然而祂說，我們對父母的愛，有時候比較起對祂的愛，我們應該要更愛祂。《故我差遣你》
1213 Intercessory Prayer
…men always ought to pray and not lose heart. —Luke 18:1
You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God. True intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that seems to be crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by His attitude toward that person or circumstance. Intercession means to “fill up…[with] what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” (Colossians 1:24), and this is precisely why there are so few intercessors. People describe intercession by saying, “It is putting yourself in someone else’s place.” That is not true! Intercession is putting yourself in God’s place; it is having His mind and His perspective.
As an intercessor, be careful not to seek too much information from God regarding the situation you are praying about, because you may be overwhelmed. If you know too much, more than God has ordained for you to know, you can’t pray; the circumstances of the people become so overpowering that you are no longer able to get to the underlying truth.
Our work is to be in such close contact with God that we may have His mind about everything, but we shirk that responsibility by substituting doing for interceding. And yet intercession is the only thing that has no drawbacks, because it keeps our relationship completely open with God.
What we must avoid in intercession is praying for someone to be simply “patched up.” We must pray that person completely through into contact with the very life of God. Think of the number of people God has brought across our path, only to see us drop them! When we pray on the basis of redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him. —So Send I You, 1301 L