This devotional about intercessory prayer is by Dr. Elliot R. Cole.
Paul, one of the greatest of preachers and teachers, never reached the place where he considered himself above the need of prayer nor did he hesitate to request other believers to pray in his behalf.
The request of the Apostle was not limited to himself but included all of his associates in Rome. The request was not for simple petition to "bless the missionaries in Rome," but that individual interest be undertaken in behalf of each with definite, specific intercession for each.
His prison chains were not uppermost in the mind of Paul, but the chains of sin that held men in bondage. He prayed for doors of utterance to open and not the door of the prison. When most would be on the defensive, Paul was on the offensive. He wanted to be used right where he was.
Were the prayers of intercession of the Colossians and others answered? The next letter written by the Apostle Paul, of which we have record, is the letter to the church at Phillipi. To them he could say, "I want you to understand, brothers, that my experiences have turned out for rather than against the advance of the gospel, so that throughout the imperial guard and everywhere else my shackles have become known in union with Christ" (Phil. 1:12,13, Berkeley). Intercessory prayer turned Satan's supposed victory into Satan's defeat. No more needed ministry exists today in the church of Jesus Christ than the ministry of intercession from which no Christian is exempt.
O Thou by whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way!
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach us how to pray!
--James Montgomery