I've never been a person to ask anyone to pray for me, I've always felt if a Christian's faith is truly rooted deep into the soil of scripture, prayer, meditation and fasting that when the burning sun of life's trials and tribulation come up against the believer he will not be moved.
With all this said you can imagine how surprised I was to have my pastor pray for me last Sunday, not that he does pray for others, its that when he asks "Does anyone need prayer?" I never come for prayer. But last Sunday was different, my mother who is a member of another church decided to visit our church and she witnessed my pastor praying for me.
"When Tony (my pastor and cousin ) prayed for you Sunday" My mother began, "I could tell he really meant what he was praying, it was as if he was begging God if you would only do this for me God" she continued. "I thought of Tony as a mother eagle wrapping her wing around her chicks to protect them from the pouring rain. I could feel it in his voice, I could see it in his eyes, and I know God heard his prayers also"
When my mother said this I thought of a post I wrote about 2 years ago called "Praying to the Point of Tears" This post highlighted the relationship between tears, and truly contrite and fervent prayer. My thought was if praying for yourself to the point of tears was good, how much greater is the intercessor that could pray to the point of tears for someone else? How profound was this prayer for me?
Below is an excerpt of the post "Praying to the Point of Tears" dated November 16, 2007. I hope you enjoy this post and I hope this advice given will elevate your prayers to the next level. Follow this link (here) to read the original post.
Not until God sees the hopelessness in our life, and we experience the realization our personal situation is solely dependent on God, It's not until we realize we can do nothing but break down in tears crying out to God, in hopeless, that we can be sure that God hears our prayers. Therefore if we want God to hear our prayers then when we pray, we need to pray in a state of desperation.
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;
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;
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? Hebrews 5:7-8 tells us that even Jesus Christ prayed to the point of tears, and when he did the bible tells us that God heard him. 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
Every one of 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. Issac cried unto God in prayer, King Hezekiah cried unto God in prayer, King David cried unto God in prayer, Even our Savior cried unto God in prayer, and their prayers were contrite, and their prayers were sorrowful and God heard them.
We must ask ourselves, can we afford to not pray with the same fervor?
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Your Brother in Christ
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