Earnest Prayer

We are going through the book of Acts in our Home Team, and this Sunday we were studying chapter 12. This is where the Church is being highly persecuted and James, the brother of John, has just been killed by Herod. Peter was next in line to be murdered but because of a Jewish celebration going on he had to be put in prison for a while instead.

In verse 5 Luke writes, "So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church."

The phrase "earnest prayer" caught my attention. What does it mean to pray earnestly? I pray, but I don't know that I always pray earnestly? Do you? The church in Acts prayed earnestly, and look what God did. Earnest Prayer means to pray seriously, intentionally, purposely, passionately, fervently, constantly, and with determination. Earnest Prayer is not light, frivolous, or without real purpose. It is humbly crying out to God and actually believing that He can work in every situation of our lives.

Two examples come to mind of someone praying earnestly in the Bible.

1) Epaphras: In Colossians 4:12 Paul is writing to the church in Colossae and he says, "Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God."

2) Jesus: As Jesus is praying in the Garden before he is arrested we see him praying earnestly. Luke 22:44 says, "And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

Epaphras has such a strong passion for his people to become mature in their faith that he struggled over it. And as some translations say, he wrestled over it. Jesus bled because he was in such anguish and was crying out to his Father.

Going back to the book of Acts, we see that Peter is miraculously released from prison by an Angel of God, and he recognizes that it was God who freed him. After he was released he went back to his fellow believers and what were they doing? They were STILL PRAYING! EARNESTLY!

Do I pray earnestly? Do I believe that God can do what I'm asking him to do? Do I even care about what I'm praying for? Do I struggle in prayer over people I know who don't know Christ? Do I wrestle with God in prayer that my friends would grow mature in their faith?

These are all questions that I must ask myself if I want to grow closer to Jesus and if I want to see God work in my life and in our Church. I invite you to consider them as well. We can pray all we want but if we don't really believe that the One we're praying to is going to answer us then our prayers are in vain and our God is too small.

Has there been a time where you have prayed earnestly and God has answered?