Passionate Prayer

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%206:6-7&version=NIV1984

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+38:1-3&version=NIV1984

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2015:21-28&version=NIV1984

Been posting about prayer the past couple of days.  Specifically about perfunctory prayer.  The routine, thoughtless, dispassionate prayers that we all seem to pray at times.  I suppose that if we are in the habit of praying often, then sooner or later, we can fall into this trap.  Then there are those who pray this way all the time.  Prayers that are just ‘thrown up there’ without much thought or feeling.  This is the equivalent of saying ‘I love you’ in a dry, monotone voice to someone who is special to us.  Not very effective, that’s for sure.  Or appealing.

Now it’s not like we are foreigners to passion.  Or intensity.  Some of us can become very passionate and intense when watching sports.  Or listening to music.  Or when we are at work.  Or pursuing a favorite hobby.  So we know passion.  It just that passion doesn’t always affect the spiritual aspect of our lives.  After all, the world doesn’t like passion when it comes to religion.  That is ‘over the top’.  Just look at all the scorn that Tim Tebow is receiving these days for saying a 15 second prayer on the sidelines!

And it’s not like we don’t pray with passion or intensity at all.  We do.  It’s just that we don’t do it very often.  We are earnest in our prayers when something breaks and we don’t have the money to get it fixed.  Or when someone’s been involved in an accident.  Or has just been diagnosed with cancer.  Or we are undergoing a lot of stress or persecution.  Other than that we all have a tendency to pray rather blandly.  

 

Once again, returning to Jesus and the Garden of Gethsemane, we find that Jesus prayed so passionately in the hour or so before He was arrested that He sweat drops of blood.  Of course, this was a very unusual circumstance.  His arrest, torture and crucifixion being only hours away.  Still, I assume that Jesus prayed with passion and intensity whenever He prayed.  He was asking His Father for strength, wisdom and guidance for Himself.  And for real requests for real people.  People who mattered to Him.

Then there is David.  How many times in the Psalms do we find him literally crying out to God?  His friends had deserted him.  His enemies were trying to kill him.  He was constantly on the run.  His heart was broken.  At times such as this David prayed with great feeling and intensity.  I imagine we would have prayed the exact same way if we were in the same situation.

What is the solution?  I suppose it would involve several things.  The first factor is time.  I mean how intense can we get in our prayers when we pray for all of 2 minutes?  (Unless we are right in the middle of an emergency!)  In sports, no one immediately goes full speed.  There are the warm-up exercises that athletes do so that they can go full-speed once the game starts.  These warm-up exercises take time.  The same is true in prayer.  It is going to take us some time on our knees if we want to pray with intensity and desire.  You can’t turn passion on and off like a spigot.

Another factor is engagement.  It is hard to pray intensely when our hearts and/or minds are not engaged.  So if our mind wanders when we pray, if we really don’t have a stake in what or who we are praying for, passion will be noticeably absent.  A third factor is the state of our relationship with God.  If we aren’t very close to God, then we won’t have His passion and concern in prayer.  My belief is that the closer we get to God the more passionate and intense we get about the things of God.

How passionate have your prayers been lately?  I know that God is leading me to get better in this area.  To pray with desire.  To pray intensely.  To storm the gates of Heaven!  That is what the Canaanite woman did with Jesus in Matthew 15.  She was persistent in her request to have her daughter healed.  And Jesus rewarded her intensity by healing her.

So let’s crank it up a bit.  Let’s get serious about prayer.  Let’s get intense.  Passionate.  Really connect with God.  And see how He answers our prayers.  And how lives are changed.  Including ours!

Lord, I don’t want to be guilty of halfhearted praying.  I don’t want to settle for blandness.  Mediocrity.  I want to pray with passion.  With desire.  With intensity.  Lead me in this area.  Help me to pray for the things You want.  In the way You want me to.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.