We have seen how Jesus, in the days of His flesh, prayed to His Father “with vehement cries and tears” (Hebrews 5:7). Reading this verse, I am in awe and wonder. Just imagine the Son of God praying this way to the Father! This was intense, excruciating prayer, and we see it especially in Gethsemane.
On that night in the garden, Jesus was assured of the Father’s love for Him; He knew the Father would strengthen Him for the assignment that was facing Him; and He was fully confident that He was completely in the Father’s will. But all of this did not diminish the intensity of the prayers He offered. This intensity came from the One who had absolute confidence in the heavenly Father.
How would you describe the intensity of your own prayer life? Can you say that your petitions and supplication to the Father are marked by “cries and tear’? When you think of Jesus in prayer in Gethsemane, only hours away from dying for the sins of the world, do you think that there is any less intensity in God’s heart today for those that are lost and facing an eternity apart from God? Is sin and its destruction any less offensive or real in our day than it was in Jesus’ day? The servants of God should experience a deep intensity in their seeking after God in prayer. As our world heads morally downward, are there vehement cries and tears in our churches for God’s strength to carry out their assignment to be salt and light among the nations? Or have we lost this intensity?
What do we have on our hearts when we come to pray as individuals and as churches? In Gethsemane, Jesus was totally focused on what was before Him, with no hint of any distraction of any kind. What about us? Are we so sidetracked or casual about our assignment as Christians, and in turn have we lost the passion of Christlike praying? Could this be why there is so few “vehement cries and tears” when we pray alone or in our churches?