The Agony of Prayer

“Being in anguish, He prayed more fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.” (Luke 22:44)

Prayer is not difficult to understand. It is difficult to do. When was the last time your heart so grieved for those you were interceding for that your entire body agonized along with your mind and heart (Heb. 5:7)?

We are a generation that avoids pain at all costs. This is why there are so few intercessors. Most Christians operate on the shal­lowest levels of prayer, but God wants to take us into the deep levels of intercessory prayer that only a few ever experience. Deep, prolonged intercession is painful. It involves staying before God when everyone else has gone away or sleeps (Luke 22:45). It involves experiencing brokenness with the Father over those who continually rebel against Him. How many of us will experi­ence this kind of fervent intercession?

We long for Pentecost in our lives and in our churches, but there is no Pentecost without Gethsemane and a cross. How do we become mature in our prayer life? By praying. When we do not feel like praying is precisely the time we ought to pray. There are no shortcuts to prayer. There are no books to read, seminars to attend, or inspirational mottoes to memorize that will trans­form us into intercessors. This comes only by committing our­selves to pray and then doing so.

Why not accept God’s invitation to become an intercessor? Don’t allow yourself to become satisfied with shallow, self-cen­tered praying. Stay with God in prayer until He leads you to pray at the level He wants.

HB.RB.