The second inspiration came from another church experience. As a young adult, I was attending church and trying to be as active as possible in the church body. I was part of a typical young adult Sunday School class that collected weekly prayer requests in a notebook. Each week, the notebook was passed around the class so attendees could write down their prayer requests. Copies of those requests were then made and distributed to class members to guide our prayers throughout the week. This practice continued for years with little change and, if I’m honest, probably little thought about the significance of what we were doing.
Then, one Sunday, an attendee shared a prayer request involving a very difficult, life-altering situation he was facing. In that moment, our routine changed. We set aside our usual activity and began begging God to do a mighty work in the life of our friend. Several class members prayed aloud, leading the rest of us in a time of earnest intercessory prayer. We were no longer simply reading names on a sheet of paper. We were carrying the burden of a fellow believer before the throne of God.
As we prayed, God brought three things to my mind: the four men in Mark 2, Ms. Sarah, and our prayer request notebook. I began to see a connection between them that I had not fully understood before. The four men in Mark 2 carried their paralyzed friend to Jesus because he could not get there on his own. Ms. Sarah had demonstrated what it meant to faithfully carry the needs of others to the Lord through prayer. And our little prayer request notebook was a practical way for the rest of us to do the same.
After we finished praying, I challenged the class to begin viewing our prayer request sheets differently. I explained that these sheets—and the notebook itself—represented our stretcher. Every name written on those pages represented a person with a need, a burden, a struggle, or a circumstance that might be more than they could bear alone. When we take those names to Jesus in prayer, we are, in a spiritual sense, doing what those four men did in Mark 2: carrying someone who needs help into the presence of the One who can help them.
Think about those four men for a moment. They did not allow the crowd to stop them. They did not turn around when the doorway was blocked. They were determined to get their friend to Jesus, even if it meant finding another way. Their faith moved them to action, and Mark 2:5 tells us that Jesus saw their faith.
What might happen if we approached intercessory prayer with that same determination? What if we refused to let busyness, routine, discouragement, or the feeling that we could do nothing else keep us from bringing others before the Lord? We may not be able to change someone’s circumstances. We may not have the answers they desperately need. We may not be able to remove their pain or solve their problems. But we can carry them to Jesus.
Our stretcher may not be made of wood and cloth. It may be a prayer list, a notebook, a name on a bulletin, a message from a friend, or a burden God places on our hearts. The important thing is not the stretcher itself, but what we do with it. We take the needs of others to Jesus, trusting Him with what we cannot fix ourselves.
I cannot fathom a more powerful thing we can do for another person than to bring them before the Most High God in prayer. The world may measure our impact by what we accomplish with our own hands, but sometimes one of the greatest acts of love is to carry someone else’s burden to the feet of Jesus. We may never know the full impact of those prayers this side of heaven, but we can trust that God hears us and that He is able to work in ways we cannot see or understand.
So, who is on your stretcher? Whose burden are you helping to carry? Who needs you to stand in the gap for them today?
Who are you taking to Jesus?
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