No matter who you are, it’s harder to pray when you are bearing a heavy load in your life. We tend to go through the routine of prayer when all is well. But when we pray under a load, it causes us to pour out our heart and emotions to God. The heavier the load, the more you tend to pour out your inside to God.
Prayer is vital because it is the means through which we communicate with God. Prayer is how we petition God. In this episode, Frank focuses upon the importance of praying through the difficult times in our life.
No one has ever gone through a trial as difficult as Jesus did when He faced the cross at Calvary. He even prayed to God that “if it were possible, the hour might pass from him” (Mark 14:35, KJV).
Moreover, Jesus told His disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Mark 14:34, NIV). This was the human side of Jesus manifesting itself. Even He found it more challenging to pray because of the load that was upon Him. It is important to remember that He didn’t minister as God but as a human being while on earth. He was no exception; like us, He found it more burdensome to pray because of the heavy load that God had allowed to be placed upon Him.
But in the end, Jesus chose to obey the will of His Father in spite of how He felt. “Not what I will, but what thou wilt,” He prayed (Mark 14:36, KJV).
Jesus is our perfect example for how to pray through a trial. Facing the cross, bearing the weight of the world on His shoulder, sorrowful in spirit, abandoned by His closest friends on earth, He prayed through and pressed His way. Thank God that He did! Our eternal fate rested upon His obedience to the cross.
When you are praying through a trial, you do well to remember the words of Jesus to His disciples in the garden. “The spirit truly is ready but the flesh is weak” (verse 38). The point is that when you are in Christ, the Spirit of Christ indwells you. So, even though you may be weak in the flesh, remember that the Spirit of Christ within you is always ready to go with God.
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