The Ministry of Intercession

It is Andrew Murray's plea for a life of intercession — prayer for others — written out of grief over the church's lack of prayer. The companion to his With Christ in the School of Prayer, its chapters move from that lack, through Christ's own praying and the believer's call to intercede, to a practical summons to take up intercession as a real and vital ministry.

A South African pastor and one of the most beloved devotional writers of the deeper Christian life, author of many short books on prayer and abiding in Christ. The Ministry of Intercession, published in 1897, is one of his major works on prayer, focused specifically on the calling of every believer to pray for others.

Prayer offered on behalf of others — standing before God for the needs of people, the church, and the world. Murray sees intercession not as an optional extra but as a central part of the believer's priestly calling in Christ, a real ministry by which God works blessing into the lives of others through the prayers of his people.

Out of sorrow at how little the church prays. Murray was grieved that intercession was so neglected, and wrote to awaken believers to their calling and to rekindle a life of prayer for others. The book is both a lament over prayerlessness and an earnest, hopeful summons to take up the ministry of intercession in earnest.

It is its companion volume. Where the earlier book teaches the believer how to pray, with Christ as the master, The Ministry of Intercession focuses on praying for others as a distinct and vital calling. Together they form Murray's fuller teaching on prayer — one schooling the reader in prayer itself, the other pressing the duty and privilege of interceding for others.

Yes — Murray is concerned not merely to persuade but to move the reader to actually intercede. He addresses the causes of prayerlessness, the encouragement of Christ's own intercession, and the boldness God's promises invite, and he presses toward a real, ongoing practice of praying for others, including calls to renewed commitment to a life of intercession.

For any Christian who senses that their prayer life is thin, especially in prayer for others, and who wants to take up intercession seriously. Murray writes for the ordinary believer, and the book has stirred many out of prayerlessness into a fuller ministry of praying for the church and the world.

At the beginning, letting Murray name the church's lack of prayer, before he leads the reader through Christ's intercession and into the call to intercede. The chapters build toward a practical summons, so the book rewards being read in order and prayerfully, as an invitation to actually take up the ministry of intercession it describes.