Earnest Prayer

 I wonder what it takes to get us to pray earnest prayers to the Lord of heaven and earth? I am afraid that it is easy for us to slip into a mode of prayer that is less than earnest. Our prayers can become perfunctory, if we don't watch out. I am not saying that we do not mean what we are saying, but we just don't have the sincerity we should, at times.

Jonah is a good example of this. (Jonah 2:7) He said, "As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord; and my earnest prayer went out to You in Your holy Temple." It was only as he felt like he was dying that he fervently reached out to the Lord for help. When Jonah prayed that earnest prayer, God rescued him from the sea.

I hope it doesn't take us being on death's door step to really get serious about our prayers. I believe that we need to prepare our hearts even before we begin to pray, so we will be in the right spirit and have the right mind to approach our Holy God. We need to realize that we are speaking to the Lord of all and come humbly before Him.

Then, we need to pour out our heart to Him. We can't just say words, even if they are the right words. Our words must come from the depths of our heart, so that they are expressing what we really think and feel to the Lord. That is when we are truly praying an earnest prayer. I pray we can all pray like that every day.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Jonah 3-4 and Micah 1-2.