Earnest Prayer
26th June 2008
Recently I was given a list of bible verse references and asked to look up the references and write the verses down. This was to be actually used in a message. Most of the verses there was about prayer. I know that Jesus often withdrew in prayer but reading these verses showed how often. There was one verse which said ‘Very early in the morning’ Jesus withdrew to pray. There was another verse which said Jesus ‘continued all night in prayer to God’. And sometimes he just withdrew for days to be alone in prayer. One verse in particular appealed to me. And that was from Luke 22:44. It went this way-
"And being in great anguish, he prayed more earnestly"
Everybody in this world have some problem or the other. No one is problem free. Jesus had his own problems too and how did he handle them? He handled them with wisdom and courage. When Jesus was in this earth, He was as human as you and me. So where did His wisdom and courage come from? The bible says – If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously without finding fault. Jesus spent a lot of time with His Father. He spent a lot of time talking and listening to Him and I’m sure He asked God for wisdom to handle and tackle tough situations efficiently and God gave Him all the wisdom He needed.
The best way to come out of a tricky situation is by praying. It may be a small problem or a big one. It could be something you landed in because you were wrong. But irrespective of the problem or whose mistake, the good news is that, when you call to God for help, He WILL help.
During this time when God spoke to me through this verse I was going through a tough time myself and I didn’t know how to handle things. I didn’t have the wisdom or the courage. I did pray but after some time of praying and seeing myself in the same situation, I kind of worried more and prayed less. It was during this time that God spoke to me through this verse. When Jesus was in great anguish, what did he do? He prayed more earnestly. The word ‘more’ shows that Jesus had been praying all along but when he got into a situation which caused great anguish, he didn’t quit praying and start worrying or he didn’t start praying lesser, or he didn’t start doubting his prayers and questioning God. He just began to pray 'more' earnestly. The worse the problem got, the more he prayed.
So His anguish was directly proportional to His prayers. It was like telling the devil – The more you cause anguish for me, the closer I get to God. There was no one who influenced the world more than Jesus. If you and I want our lives to show and glorify Jesus, the best example for us is Jesus. And our example, Jesus, prayed more earnestly when in anguish.
I learned it the hard way but yes I have seen the power of prayer. Whenever something upsets me I usually tend to either complaint or fight and sometimes even if I decided to pray, as I prayed, at the back of my mind I would actually be so angry and thinking horrible, bad thoughts. I would think of ways I could solve the issue which would most of the time just land me in more trouble. I don’t say that I am perfect today but yes, I have learned that nothing is better than praying when you want a problem solved.
Today if in anguish or upset I would either immediately withdraw to a quiet corner to pray or ask Jerry to pray with me, for me. Be it an hour or even just 5 minutes, I would just cry it out at the feet of Jesus and leave it there for Him to handle and then walk out free.
There was a time I thought that, there were some kind of situations where you were totally helpless, where you could do nothing. But today I know that there is no such situation. Simply cos my hope today is in Jesus and I have discovered the power of praying. I always knew God answers prayers and I always knew God is a powerful God but that was mere knowledge, with no wisdom added to it. But today I have seen the power of prayer. It’s about praying persistently and not getting discouraged when things get worse but like Jesus, praying more earnestly and like the Bible says – The effective, earnest prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
James 5:17 - Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
Luke 22:44 - And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground
