January 7
“In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry for help before Him came into His ears.” Psalm 18:6
I have spent much time praying over my Christian life, but I believe I have been missing something really important in my prayers much of the time. This missing element is crying out to God. It’s one thing to ask God for things in a conversational way, and that is very good and is the type of thing we need to do continually throughout the day. “Pray without ceasing” Paul says, and it is a critical part of walking with God in victory.
But what I think does not get much mention or discussion when people talk about prayer is crying out, when our whole being shudders, our diaphragm tightens, and in anguish we communicate to God what we have to have. There is an urgency, a must-have-it-or-I-will-die intensity to crying out that has been absent far too much in my praying. But the exciting thing is that when I pray like this, I really sense progress like no other time. I think this crying out is where we start putting our shoulder to the mountain and start moving the rocks ourselves with brute physical force. There is an exertion, a real physical effort to this type of praying. Some might describe this as wrestling with God. This I believe is what Jesus was doing in the garden when drops of blood came forth.
What in your life do you have to have? Do your prayers tend to gravitate toward things and accomplishments, or Him and His righteousness? Have you ever cried out to God? Have you ever cried out to God for victory over sin in your life? Have you ever cried out to God for Christ’s righteousness working itself out daily in you? Have you ever cried out for more of Him, more fellowship, more obedience, more grace, more Christ likeness?
God will not in any way deny prayers such as these. Crying out to God must become a practice and habit of the victorious Christian. We have to realize that the stakes are very high in this life, and our obedience and faithfulness could very well spell life and death for us and others. We must wake up and realize our great spiritual need and the necessity of walking with Christ. If this isn’t our urgent need and overriding desire in life, then we will continue to get the mediocre, lukewarm, up and down, defeated results we are seeing.
Make crying out to God for Christ’s holiness, Christ’s righteousness, Christ’s grace, Christ’s peace, Christ’s love, Christ’s wisdom, Christ’s power, Christ’s obedience, and anything else pertaining to living the victorious Christian life a habit in your daily life. I know you will see amazing results.