Courtroom Intercession

It's been a while since I entered anything - more for busyness than lack.

I've been going to court lately as one of the men I have been visiting in jail has hearings. Court can be a discouraging place. Since these are hearings and not trials, there is a lot of activity as the front of the courtroom is full of attorneys - about a dozen or so - prosecuters and defense alike. Over the period of three hours inmates are brought down in their red jump suits and in chains to appear with their attorney (in most cases hugely overworked public defenders) before the judge.

I feel the disillusionment and cynicism in the room. How hard it must be for the defense attorneys to present a compelling case that their client (with a string of offenses) should be released or bail lowered or some other thing. I wonder if they have a hard time believing it for themselves. How difficult for the judge to remain open to possibilities, to not be cynical when he sees person after person, case after case, some people over and over again - how to judge justly. And what is it like for the prosecuting attorneys whose job it is to accuse and make the accusation stick? I feel despair.

How to pray in this place? We make it our business to forgive those who have wronged us, to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who persecute us - this is our template. We bless the judge and pray that they would do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with Father God. We bless the defense attorneys, pray for their energy and encouragement, and that the Holy Spirit Advocate would stand with them and guide them. We bless the prosecuting attorneys and pray that Jesus would stand between them and the Accuser in a job that is so much about accusation.

Beyond that it is hard to know how to pray because it is hard to know what the person in front of us really needs and what God really wants to do for them. How do you pray "God's will" in that place? Often we simply pray quietly in tongues because in our weakness we don't know how to pray so the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words... He intercedes for us according to God's will.