Intercessory prayer

I have had difficulty with prayer, especially intercessory prayer. It just doesn't make sense that a 'created heart' could feel more than the 'creators heart' and have a compassion that our God lacks. I'm sure I don't need to bring Gods attention to something that he missed. Yet we here stories of Abraham, Moses, Daniel where the Lord changes his will at their request. Therefor the practice of intercessory prayer is legitimate though it does not make sense.

I went down to Potters for an Alpha course that they are doing. I see it as a good opportunity for discussion with the community. I have never taken alpha before but I ended up going on a day where they were discussing prayer. The video was good but I didn't really feel like there was anything new for me. None the less it spurned me in the right direction. While I have always seen prayer as a way of developing a relationship with our Father I began to see that intercessory prayer was a way of developing a heart for others. Prayer is about aligning our will with our Fathers. We should have a loving compassion for those around us and one way to break through our hard hearts and cultivate a selfless heart is through the intercessory prayer process.

There were three Hispanic men sitting at our table. One of them didn't talk for most of the discussion but near the end he spoke but in his foreign tongue and his friend translated. He said so many great things about the state of the church and it's shepherds, the conflicts in Mexico, our self serving culture. I felt like a prophet was speaking. One thing he said that really stuck out was that we have to stop praying only for ourselves. This was my confirmation and I now pray in an intercessory fashion with more confidence of it's purpose.

Just to cover myself, I know this perspective on prayer takes away the power that some would ascribe to it. I don't claim to have a systematic understanding of prayer according to the bible. I do think there is great power in changing a heart. Changing hearts can sometimes be harder than moving mountains. The power is the Lords and the only power we have is the Spirit that is with in us.