What does it mean to have a “prayer burden”? Let me give you some examples. Have you ever been in the midst of prayer, sitting in the office or driving down the road when thoughts about your college roommate – the one you haven’t talked to in years – break in and persist for a significant period of time? Or, perhaps it’s a fellow co-worker sitting in the next cubicle or your grandchild who is in middle school. Thoughts like this persist when the Holy Spirit is nudging us to intercede for that person or situation in prayer. We recognize prayer burdens by their persistence, intensity, and urgency.

In the Old Testament, Genesis 18 (NIV), we read about the time the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre. During the heat of the day, Abraham was resting beside his tent door, his eyes closed, when three visitors appeared.  According to Scripture, Abraham ran to the men and bowed in deference to their superiority. Then, being true to the custom of his day, he extended his visitors a hearty welcome, providing water to wash their feet and a feast to satisfy their hunger. This wasn’t an ordinary afternoon for Abraham; in fact, it was a divine appointment in which the Lord appeared as a theophany, in the pre-Incarnate form of Christ, to deliver two messages. One message was wonderful; the other one was devastating. The Lord told Moses that within a year’s time, Abraham’s wife, Sarah, would bear a son. The Lord also entrusted the news of his intentions to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. 

Abraham responded to God’s warning about Sodom and Gomorrah with incredible boldness. Drawing near to the Lord, he said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous in the city. Will you sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of the earth do what is just?” God then promised to spare the whole place for the fifty righteous ones living in the city. Abraham continues the dialogue with “what if’s.” What if there are forty? What about thirty, or twenty, or ten? 

Previously, when I read this passage in Genesis, I would cringe at Abraham’s boldness. However, I now realize that Abraham’s response wasn’t a challenge; it was a prayer of intercession. God gave his servant divine knowledge, a prompting or burden, if you will, in order for Abraham to intercede on behalf of the faithful few still living in Sodom and Gomorrah, including his nephew, Lot, and his family. 

What is your prayer burden today? Is it for the people struggling to raise their families in war-torn areas such as Ukraine and the Middle East, or is it for those communities from Florida to Tennessee that were devastated by Hurricane Helene? Perhaps your prayer burden is a bit closer to home. Maybe God has burdened your heart for a grandchild whose foundation toppled in the quake of their parent’s divorce or one with special needs who is being bullied at school. Perhaps God has burdened you to pray for your teenage grandson whom you suspect is addicted to video games. 

It’s important that we don’t shy away from a God-given prompting to pray. As believers, we have God’s Spirit living within us, giving us burdens and nudging us to pray for an individual or circumstance. If you aren’t sure whether an impression or gut feeling is a prayer burden or not, pray anyway. Everyone needs prayer. And if you don’t know how to pray for a person or circumstance, ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and direction. Scripture tells us we can trust the Spirit to help “us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words,” (Romans 8:26, ESV). 

One final note: My precious husband, who is a powerful and dedicated prayer warrior, especially when it comes to our family, strongly dislikes the use of burden when talking about prayer. He reminds me that prayer is a privilege. Therefore, in our home, we refer to these nudges as prayer privileges.

So, I have to ask one more time: “Has God given you a prayer burden today?