Day 24: Jesus, You Show Me Passionate Prayer

How’s your prayer life these days? Need some encouragement to get passionate in prayer? All you have to do is look at Jesus and you will gain a new view of prayer. Today I read in Hebrews about how Jesus prayed. I was totally convicted to pray more. “While Jesus was here on earth, He offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the One who could rescue Him from death. And God heard His prayers because of His deep reverence for God” (Hebrews 5:7). Those words cause me to ask myself: Do I plead with God in my prayers? Do I cry out to Him? Am I so moved that tears flow down my face? Do I possess a deep reverence for God? In all things spiritual, we should look to Jesus as our ultimate model to emulate. He leads the school of prayer for His disciples. And He has enrolled us in the school. Now, will we learn and practice the fine art of praying like Jesus? Luke tells us that Jesus “often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer” (Luke 5:16). That little word “often” speaks volumes about our need for prayer.

E.M. Bounds says, “We must be pre-eminently people of prayer. Our hearts must graduate in the school of prayer, for only in the school of prayer can the heart learn to minister. No learning can make up for the failure to pray. No earnestness, no diligence, no study will supply its lack. Talking to others for God is a great thing. But talking to God for others is greater sill. We will never speak to people for God with real success until we have learned how to speak to God for people.”

Then, Octavius Winslow (a friend of Spurgeon) says, “I tell you, the man who lives with God in little matters—who walks with God in the minutiae of his life—is the man who becomes the best acquainted with God—with His character, His faithfulness, His love. To meet God in my daily trials, to take to Him the trials of my calling, the trials of my church, the trials of my family, the trials of my own heart; to take to Him that which brings the shadow upon my brow, that rends the sigh from my heart—to remember it is not too trivial to take to God—above all, to take to Him the least taint upon the conscience, the slightest pressure of sin upon the heart, sthe softest conviction of departure from God—to take it to Him and confess it at the foot of the cross, with the hand of faith upon the bleeding sacrifice—oh! These are the paths in which a man becomes intimately and closely acquainted with God.”

These quotes and Jesus’ example move me to a deeper conviction to passionately pray for everything on my heart today. May we all grow deeper in our life of passionate prayer.

My Response: Lord Jesus, thank You for showing us the way to passionate prayer—with pleadings, cries, and tears. May I be so moved to bring every request to the Father in believing, reverent prayer! In Jesus’ name, Amen.