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Earnest Desire Needed in Effective Prayers

(Overcomer Wu)

"What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them" Mark 11:24

We are well acquainted with the fact that answers to prayer are the result great faith; however, what is also required is a desperate earnest desire on our part. Perhaps our accompanying earnestness in prayer demonstrates just how serioius we are in our prayer to the Lord. Afterall, if we are not serious about what we pray for, why should the Lord be serious in answering our prayers? For instance, Jonah was praying earnestly in distress from the depth of the grave and crying out to God for help. Consequently, the Lord heard Jonah's prayer as the deep waters were surrounding him and seaweeds were wrapped around his head and caused the fish to vomit him out on land where he was destined to go. Jonah prayed with desperate desire to the Lord not only for his own deliverance from his watery grave but also with vows of obedience to God's will accompanied with great faith.

Hannah was a believing wife who had no children. She prayed for children but had none because the Lord had closed her womb. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. This went on year after year. In soul-wrenching prayers Hannah wept much and continually prayed to the Lord. In distress she made a vow, saying, "O Lord Almighty, if You will only look upon Your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget Your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to You forever." Note that Hannah's desire was not just for herself, but also for the Lord's purpose when she vowed to give him to serve the Lord. As she continued to pray out of her great anguish and grief, she received the assurance that God heard her prayer. In due time God answered her prayer. Hannah kept her vow and the world was given one of the great men of God in history. Samuel has blessed the world ever since. Great answers to prayer are the result of great desires in prayer.

Another example was Ruth, who prayed to be accepted into God’s family. She was determined; she kept urging and making promises to her mother-in-law Naomi until she was accepted. Her great desires in prayer gave her a great answer to prayer. She became a woman blessed of God, and she became the grandmother of King David because of her earnest prayer.

In the New Testament, the wicked King Herod began to persecute Christians. After having put to death the Apostle James, he seized Peter also, intending to bring him out for public trial and be put to dead. "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him." With James gone and with the possibility of losing Peter, the church prayed earnestly. While the church persevere in earnest prayers, the Lord released Peter from his prison cell and brought him to their door.

God heard the earnest prayers of Jonah, and he got a free ride from the belly of the fish to his destination. God heard the desperate prayers of Hannah, and God gave her a son who remained true to the Lord's service his whole life long. God heard the prayer and promise of Ruth, and she became and remained a woman blessed of God and became a part in the genealogy of Christ Jesus. The early church prayed earnestly to God for the apostles and God worked mightily through them to spread the gospel to all the land and the word of God increased and abounded through them.

Someone put this aspect of prayer quite well in lyrical forms:

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire

Uttered or unexpressed.

It's the motion of a burning fire

That burns within the breast.