Earnest Prayer

For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Romans 8:26

This kind of prayer can span oceans, cross burning deserts, leap over mountains, and penetrate jungles to carry the healing, helping power of the Gospel to the objects of our prayer.

This kind of mourning, this quality of concern, is produced by the presence of God’s Spirit in our lives. That “the Spirit itself maketh intercession” indicates that it is actually God pleading, praying, and mourning through us. Thus we become co-laborers with God, actual partners with Him: our lives are lifted from the low plane of selfishness to the high plane of creativeness with God.

John Knox spent much time in prayer, and the Church in Scotland expanded into new life. John Wesley prayed long and often, and the Methodist movement was born. Martin Luther prayed earnestly, and the Reformation was under way.

God desires that we Christians be concerned and burdened for a lost world. If we pray this kind of prayer, an era of peace may come to the world and hordes of wickedness may be turned back. “As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” (Isaiah 66:8).

How much do you pray? If someone were to examine your prayer life, would he find that you are more excited about watching football or visiting a friend than talking to God?

Our Father and our God, make me a partner with You, a co-laborer in the Gospel of Christ to take Your Word to the lost and dying world. Send me where You will; use me as You will. Teach me also to pray for Your work in this world. Glorify Yourself through me, Father, as a servant, as was Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010