Sunday, November 16, 2014

Why Be a Critic When You Can Be An Intercessor

Tuesday mornings my husband meets with a group of pastors from all over Prince Edward Island. They gather to pray and support one another. The different churches gather once a month to pray for the island. This month the pastors thought they would gather for an entire day of prayer. They wanted to honor all those who intercede for them and the island. It was a great day.

All the pastors spoke and had encouraging words to share. My husband spoke about honoring the intercessor and the difference between an intercessor and a critic. They are different sides of the same coin. I was moved by it. It started me thinking and looking into myself to see which side the coin was facing up for me.

When you Google the word intercessor the definition is simple: a person who intervenes on behalf of another, especially by prayer.

When you Google the word critic the first definition that comes up: a person who expresses an unfavorable opinion of something. Synonyms: detractor, attacker, fault-finder.

A critic talks to others; while an intercessor talks to God about a person. A critic builds walls between people; while an intercessor builds bridges between people to God. A critic gets his reward from others; while an intercessor gets his reward from God. A critic lacks faith and trusts only in himself and his knowledge; while an intercessor has faith and trusts in God. A critic trusts in what he thinks he sees; while an intercessor trusts in what he can’t see. A critic gets power from others of like-mindedness and builds his case against another person; while an intercessor gets power from his relationship with God trusting that God is bigger and in control.

So my prayer for myself is this:
Lord help me to criticize less and pray more. Help me to build bridges and not walls, especially around myself. May I be someone who trusts in You more than I trust in myself. I pray that I love the people you place in my life and trust You for the rest.

© Nadine Zawacki 2014

3 comments:

Kathie said...

Thoughtful and encouraging - thanks Nadine!

Brenda said...

Thank you. This was a much-needed post for me to read. I love God's timing, since I just last night decided to give my blog a go again.
I look forward to catching up here as well!

Diwakar said...

Hello Nadine. Wish you a very blessed, prosperous and a very Christ centered new year. I am so glad to stop by your profile as well as blog post and know more about you as well as go through your post. Since your post is old I just wanted to make sure that you get to read my comment. I hope you will soon visit your blog post. I am indeed blessed by your blog post and I very much liked the very title of your post and it speaks a lot what you have to say. I am blesed by it and thank you for sharing it. I am in the Pastoral ministry for last 35yrs in the great city of Mumbai, I ndia a city with great contrast whrer richest of rich and the poorest of poor live. We reach out to the poorest of poor with the love of Christ to bring healing to the broken hearted. We also encourage young people as well as adults from the West to come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time. We would love to have you come to Mumbai on a short/ long term missions trip to work wtih us in the slums of Mumbai during their vacation time. We would love to have you come to Mumbai with your friends to work with us in the slums of Mumbai during your vacation time. I am sure you will have a life changing time. Looking forward to hear from you very soon. My email id is:dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar Wankhede. God's richest blessings on you.