16 – Intercede for Someone | 21 Days of Prayer 2025

16 – Intercede for Someone | 21 Days of Prayer 2025

I urge… that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people.
1 Timothy 2:1

One of my favorite things to listen to is a young child’s prayer before bedtime, because it reminds me of the bedtime story, Goodnight Moon.

If you’re unfamiliar with it, the child in the story needs to say goodnight to every little item in their room before turning in. So they say goodnight to the moon, and the window, and the clock, and the hairbrush, and on and on (it’s clear they are trying to prolong bedtime).

A child’s prayer at bedtime is similar because it usually meanders through lots of people and situations to pray for, following the child’s mind as they lift up everything they can think of in prayer.

I love it, because they don’t think they CAN’T pray for certain things.

Pray for the neighbor? Yes. Pray for the neighbor’s cat? Absolutely. Pray for tomorrow to be sunny. Sure thing. Pray for their teacher to know Jesus loves them? Of course.

And I think God loves it, too, because prayers like that invite God’s presence into every little aspect of life. Prayers like that acknowledge that nothing is too small for God’s attention.

And prayers like that show US that God’s heart cares enough to lean in close to every aspect of our lives.

When you pray for others, you join God’s heart for them. Because prayer changes things…mostly you.

So let’s have our prayers follow God’s heart to lift up as many people and places as we can think of, because God might be putting them on our heart for a reason.

Do This: Think of someone struggling with anxiety or stress. Spend 2 minutes right now praying for them by name.

Closing Prayer: Lord, touch and comfort those I’ve prayed for today.