Waist Deep 2018 - December 10

Hebrews 5: 7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. (NIV)

Jesus has a unique perspective on prayer. He is the only one who gets prayer from both sides. Not only does he pray to his Father, he is also the God who is prayed to.*

I heard a story about a Christian family whose infant son was dying. The father went outside after dark to pray. His wife didn’t know he was there when she stepped out so he was a witness as she shook her fist at heaven and demanded that God let her son live, without consideration to what God’s will might have been. The son recovered but he grew up to be an alcoholic and died drunk. I cannot say with authority that the mother’s prayer changed God’s mind about whether the son lived or died but the father struggled with the question throughout his son’s troubled life.

Jesus’ prayers were heard, not because he was the Son of God, but because he was reverently submissive! The mother in this story clearly lacked a willingness to accept God’s will. Is reverent submission the element that is missing from your prayer life? Are you demanding? Too casual? Do you spend so little time in prayer that you don’t even know what your attitude is? 

If Jesus’ prayers involved loud cries, tears, and reverent submission, then perhaps ours should, too . . . if we want God to answer them.

You have to wonder if God’s most merciful act is his refusal to answer some of our prayers.*