Fervent Prayer
“My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Matthew 26:39)
As the crucifixion approached, Jesus, being God, knew what was coming down. He knew they would arrest Him on false charges. He knew they would beat Him. He knew they would rip the beard out of His face. He knew that He would be whipped 39 times. He knew He would be nailed to a cross. Worst of all, He knew that He would bear the sins of all of humanity, though He had never committed a single sin.
In the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Matthew 26:39 nlt). Hebrews gives us this insight: “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” (5:7 nlt). Jesus was crying out to the Lord, and it unnerved the disciples. There was passion in His prayer.
That is how we have to pray. Imagine for a moment if your child broke her arm, and you took her to the emergency room. Would you pray for the doctor and those who were tending to your child? Of course you would. You’d pray fervently.
Or imagine, God forbid, if your child were kidnapped. Would you pray? Yes, you would pray. You would pray a storm-the-gates-of-Heaven kind of prayer. You wouldn’t take no for an answer.
That is real prayer, and that is the way we need to pray for our nation right now. We need to cry out to God. We need to pray that the Lord would send a spiritual awakening to the United States and that God will send revival to the church—that God would send revival to us.
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