I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. Psalm 6:6
Nothing has hindered the blessing or the manifestation of blessing in the life of urban men today like the concept that it is unmanly to cry.
With time, as believer in Christ we learn to mature beyond the inundated precepts of a society motivated by the whiles of Satan's pride. Those bit of society that tell us men should not cry. However for some the need to restrict crying is never released; not in public prayer, not even in secret pray with God. Some men never realize that tears are not a sign of weakness but the expression of compassion. And because of this they never reach the full application of the compassion of Christ.
One of the things God desire in our life is that we learn to lean on him for all things in our life. However, this to may seem like an admission of weakness, our pride says to us "I don't need nobody" This is how the God of this world interjects his poison into even our prayer and our relationship with our heavenly Father.
We listen to society telling us that we are self-sufficient, But the man or women of God is not self-sufficient in fact the very opposite is true. If we believe we can do anything ourselves, we have no God in us. Jesus tells us in John 15: "Apart form Him we can do nothing, We must lean on him. So that it is not until God sees the hopelessness in our life, and we experience the realization that our personal situation is solely dependent on God for salvation. There is no man or women, no job or circumstance, that can meet our needs apart form Jesus. Therefore it is not until we get to that point in lives that we can do nothing but break down in tears crying out to God, realizing that in God's hand alone is our salvation. Then God can smile on us and hears our prayers.
So when we pray we need to pray in a state of desperation. If the need is not important enough to more us to tears, how can we expect it to have the power needed to move God? The bible is full of scripture where the tears shed in prayer are heard by God.
2 Kings 20:5 (KJV)
Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
Hebrews 5:5-7 (KJV)
So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
From the above verse in Hebrews we see that even Jesus Christ would pray to the point of tears. But not until we read psalms 56:8 do we get any idea as to why.
Psalms 56:8 (TNIV)
Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll are they not in your record? When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me
OK, I'm going to say it. Sometimes prayer is ineffectual just because there are no tears. This does not mean that tears make a prayer effectual. However if your prayer can not move you to sorrow, and you are doing the praying, how much less is it moving God to want to see that prayer fulfilled?
Everyone in ancient times cried out in prayer to the Lord. I would go as far as to say that it appears to be those that cried the hardest are the ones that did the greatest works in God. In Paul's letter to Timothy he write;
"I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;" 2 Timothy 1:3-4 (KJV)
