How often do we coldly entreat God, “Fix it! Fix it!” His reply is, “Feel it! Feel it!” If your prayer doesn’t move you, it certainly won’t move God.
I remember it vividly. About a decade ago I was several years into my struggle with the chronic pain in my legs that limited my physical activity. I had prayed and received a prayer from others in multiple environments, but there was still no change. I was in my room talking to the Lord, seeking whatever would bring breakthrough, and his presence came upon me in an unexpectedly strong way. He then answered me with a single word.
Cry.
I had no idea why or what it meant at the time, but I believe God was introducing me into a new dimension of prayer, one that goes beyond the pretty performance most of us think is prayer.
Jeremiah 9:1 (NKJV)
Oh, that my head were waters,
And my eyes a fountain of tears!
Oh, for the grace to walk this out! As a mother cries out in the travails of birth, in the same way, moves of God are so often birthed with tears. There is a grace for travail that we have barely tapped into. Hannah wept at her barrenness, and Mary wept at the death of her brother Lazarus. Only at the sight of their travail was God moved.
- The prayers of the most radical personal desperation receive the most remarkable answers from the Lord.
- Tears are the blessed tool for touching the heart of God and should not be neglected in the place of prayer.
(Taken from my Upcoming Book, 12 Prayers that get Answers.)
