PASSIONATE PRAYING

Are your prayers passionate? urgent? faithful? persistent? desperate?

Be honest. Do your prayers beat on the doors of heaven? When is the last time you cried out to the Lord?

After four-hundred years of miserable slavery, the Hebrew people learned to pray with passion. “The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out, and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God”(Exodus 2:23).

The Egyptians had abused them, whipping them into compliance. “Work harder! Work longer!” Their hands were calloused, and their backs bore the deep scars inflicted by the evil taskmaster’s whip and rod. Perhaps their daughters had been conscripted to work in the homes of Egypt’s elite and powerful, and their sons had been snatched away to work in their fields. Life was hard. Hard!

The faithful clung to God’s promise, the promise given to their ancient ancestor Abraham. “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions” (Genesis 15:13–14). So, in Egypt, the faithful Hebrews passionately prayed, “God, why do you tarry? Save us from the Egyptian oppressors!”

“The Israelites groaned … and they cried out!

Consider this… America is broken. Most of our population is chasing the false gods of health, wealth, and prosperity. Fifty-one percent vote “yes” while forty-nine percent vote “no.” We’re divided right down the middle. Churches are less-than-full of the mostly-less-than-excited and are seen by the rest of the world as impotent, irrelevant, and unimportant. America is broken. We are broken.

In the days of Solomon, God promised, “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14, ESV). What might happen if God’s people today prayed like the Hebrew people back then? What would happen if we cried out to God? What would happen if we learned to pray with bold passion?

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).