Praying with Passion

Praying With Passion
Lamentations 3:21-25
Pr Janice Chin

- very wide range of perceptions about prayer and what passionate praying looks like. What do you think of when you hear "prayer" or "prayer meeting"? And "passionate prayer"?

Four snapshots of Jesus’ most passionate moments of prayer: 
1. Praying with gratitude amidst sorrow and grief (John 11:33-42)
- Jesus gave thanks firstly not for the raising of Lazarus but for God hearing his prayer
- illus. of car broke down, your mechanic came to your aid, your response would be "thank you for coming" more than anything else, even before he has fixed your car (solved your problems)
- knowing God is always present with us in our sorrowful times

2. Praying for God’s will to prevail (Matthew 26:36-44)
- this was a very intense moment in Jesus' life; we may pray similar words as in v39 and v42, but Jesus really bore a tremendous burden that only he could know
- sometimes we pray and God performs miracles, other times He allows us to go through the hard situation rather than take us out of it
- dilemma between our preference and God's will, esp when we also want God's will!; even if we know a particular choice is God's will it is still painful, we want to turn and run in the other direction
- when we pray passionate prayers about God's will being done, it sometimes looks like this

3. Praying to forgive someone who hurt you (Luke 23:34)
- a huge challenge because of a strong sense of justice when wrongdoing is committed against us or someone we know
- Jesus teaches us to forgive as we have been forgiven, regardless the other part asks for forgiveness or deserves it or not
- often the people we need to learn to forgive are those closest to us; this is such a deep area of our hearts that only God can mend
- to pray with passion means to be willing to forgive as Jesus forgave, this is part of our discipleship

Jesus prayed his most passionate prayers in the hardest moments. Through these prayers we find the example and encouragement we need for our trying times, unbridled passion in our prayer life as we face adversity.

4. Praying in the absence of God (Mark 15:33-34)
 - there will be moments in your life when it feels God is absent - how to pray with passion then?
- think of Job. In his darkest, he challenged God, he brought his raw emotions to God. In fact he questioned God on His way of justice. "HOW COULD YOU? ARE YOU NOT RIGHTEOUS AND JUST?" These are audacious words we dare not say to God, but praying with passion involves pouring out our hearts.
- praying with passion does not only involve knowing the right things about God, ie right belief (what we term orthodoxy in the study of God), or doing the right things or knowing the right way to do things, ie right actions (orthopraxy), but more importantly it is about expressing the right emotions, ie right passion (orthopathy). Head + hands + heart.
- illus. some people are very good in their music theory and they can always play with correct notes and tempo, but their heart is not in their music. Passionate musicians are different. Similarly, we may pray the right words and in a style or method that is "correct", but our heart is not in what we're praying.
- Job expressed the right passion, although his friends "knew or said" the right things about God. His relationship with God was intimate enough (yada) that he prayed this way, e.g. Job 13:15

No prayer ever reaches God’s heart which does not come from our hearts.

How can we cultivate praying with passion?
The key to praying with passion is surrender. Surrender. All the four snapshots of Jesus' prayers we've looked at tell us this : surrender.

Not only our private prayer but also corporate prayer, "nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together. Never do they love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each other's hearts in prayer" (Charles Finney).

Questions:
1) Have you ever prayed a heartfelt prayer to God? Share one moment you can recall.

2) Why did Pr Janice use the four Jesus snapshots to talk about praying with passion? Any of these relate to your own praying?

3) As a KKE CG and in your zone, what is one attitude you want to evaluate and commit to change together in these two months? How does it cultivate praying with passion (and more passionate corporate prayer)?