What Does Earnest Prayer Look Like?

Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised
Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
May we ever, Lord, be bringing
All to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright, unclouded,
There will be no need for prayer—
Rapture, praise, and endless worship
Will be our sweet portion there.

What a Friend We Have in Jesus
By: Joseph M. Scriven, 1819-1886 (1855)

Listen to this simple piano version as you read, or watch the video complete with lyrics then read.  Please make certain to enjoy the video below.

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Transcript may be found below, at the end of the blog.

We conclude our journey through this great hymn this week.  In the first half of this stanza, we remind ourselves of His promise and ask for the earnestness to bring everything to Him in prayer. Let’s tune our hearts.

What a Promise!

Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised
Thou wilt all our burdens bear;

We have recounted many promises of God through this hymn that speak of His willingness and ability to bear every burden.  I want to take a slightly different look at it today.  Lord, open our eyes.

Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:22 ESV

We tend to think of physical burdens, as well as spiritual, mental, and emotional ones.  The context of this Scripture is relational.  The writer is crying out to God throughout this entire Psalm because of the relational assault he is undergoing.

Does that bring anything to mind for you?  Is there a relationship that is creating stress and strain in your life right now?  If not, recall one from the past, and let’s consider how to deal with that.

When you are facing a relational strain, it may not be your first thought to take it to God.  Maybe you examine yourself for causes or try to come up with ways to resolve the strain, which are reasonable things to do, but how much trouble might you save yourself if you went to God first?

Try this, either now or in the future.  Cast that relational strain on the Lord.  Trust Him to sustain you under the weight of it.  Though you feel like it might become more than you can bear, rest in His promise that He will never permit the righteous to be moved.  You can stand strong if you are standing rightly, so ask Him to examine your heart for any wrong you may have injected, make it right, and stand.

Earnest

May we ever, Lord, be bringing
All to Thee in earnest prayer.

I love how intentional the hymn writers were in choosing their words.  Earnest is not a word commonly used today, so allow me to define it.  Earnest, as an adjective, means with sincere or intense conviction.  So, the prayers that are the vehicle by which we bring everything to our Lord are meant to be sincere and offered with intense conviction.

That really challenges us to examine the veracity of our prayers.  Often, we fail to pray at all, but even when we do, are they really sincere and offered with intense conviction? Hmmm.

Let us think about earnest a little differently.  Ear and Nest.

Ear

At the very least, we need to be sending our prayers up to God’s ears.  He knows our needs before we ask, but still wants us to cry out to Him.  Sadly, we often fail to take advantage of the access we have.  If we are to ever bring all to Him in prayer, we need to fill His ears with our continual pleading.  There have been seasons when I cried out frequently about one thing in particular, but I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to say it became a way of life: filling my Lord’s ear with all the concerns of my life all the time.

Nest

It needs to become a way of living, much like how the bird constructs her nest. A nest is where the birds lay their eggs, sit on them until they hatch, and then nurse their offspring until they can fly.  Think about

building such a space with your prayers.  Constantly fill the ears of our Lord with your prayers so that they become a place of safety, a cradle for new life.  Sit on those prayers until they hatch, giving birth to new beginnings and new life.  Nurse that  fledgling hope until it is ready to spread its wings and fly.  All the while, putting new eggs in the nest through other concerns.

While this way of thinking about “being earnest” is a bit strange, it gives us another way to wrap our minds around what seems to be a pretty straightforward truth about praying.  This view forced me to come to terms with what might be required to truly be earnest in prayer.  I certainly need the Spirit in order to have any hope of ever praying like that.

Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. Ephesians 6:18a ESV

So let’s just keep it simple to finish out.  “Spirit help me pray at all times, with all prayer and supplication.”  Then let Him answer that prayer in you today.

Jesus, thank You for the promises You give to bear our burdens.  Give me the faith to believe You, and the earnestness needed to pray like never before.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen!

Earnest Tuning!

Keep coming back, and we will work to help you remove the things that may hinder your longing for His return by cultivating an awareness of God’s presence.   We will help you tune your heart to live out your worship by providing resources like this to help you acknowledge the greatness of God as you become more Resonant, 7 days a week.

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Video 13.4 Transcript

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised
Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
May we ever, Lord, be bringing
All to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright, unclouded,
There will be no need for prayer—
Rapture, praise, and endless worship
Will be our sweet portion there.

We can take all our burdens to Jesus with the confidence he would bear them because He promised us He would.  In Matthew 11:28, He invites us to come and find rest. Would you take him up on his offer today? What burden do you need to bring to Jesus?

And we must make this practice of  bringing everything to Jesus a habit.  If we believe Jesus is the kind of friend He promises He is, it will cause our prayers to be earnest, showing sincere and intense conviction. Is that a fair way to describe your prayers? What must change to make it so?

I love it when the hymns take us beyond this age. There is coming a day when we will no longer need to pray, because all our burdens, trials, troubles, cares, sorrows, weaknesses, pains, sins, and griefs will be no more.  How I long for that day! Imagine what that will be like.

So if all of those things we needed to pray about are gone, what will take there place? A feeling of intense pleasure or joy will continually overwhelm us. In God’s presence, we will offer eternal praise and worship to the One who carried our burdens until He ultimately carried us home. Thank Him!

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

The post What Does Earnest Prayer Look Like? appeared first on Resonant 7.

Image Attributions
Promises – https://pixabay.com/photos/bible-blur-book-chapter-close-up-1846174/
Ear – https://pixabay.com/photos/ear-auricle-listen-hearing-2372090/
Nest – https://pixabay.com/photos/nest-empty-home-animal-bird-nest-918898/