Desperate Prayer
It was in the early years of my ministry. It was a small church, and I was always looking for ways to contact new people. I knocked on all the doors around the church (had a few closed abruptly in my face) and reached out to anyone who was new to the community. It seemed that spiritual conversations were rare. It was the spiritual conversations that I longed for because I believed my reason for being was to talk to people about Jesus.
During a morning quiet time, out of a sense of desperation, I went into the little sanctuary and lay prostrate on the floor in front of the altar. I cried out to God with a plea for souls--for people I could share Christ with. While I was praying, there was a knock on the door. I got up from my place of prayer and went to the door. There was a man who said he wasn’t sure why he was there.
He told me he was from out of town and knew nothing of our church. He had been driving down a main road and felt prompted to turn on this side street and ended up in our parking lot. He was spiritually lost and wanted to talk with someone. We talked. I shared about Jesus and prayed with him. I never saw him again.
I went back to my place of prayer and thanked the Lord for the knock on the door; for the immediate answer to my desperate prayer. Then I simply rested in Him and reflected on what had taken place over the past hour or so. What struck me was the immediacy of the answer. It came while I was praying--as if God was telling me that “if you are desperate for Me and what is on My heart, I will answer.” I was also reminded that it was more important to talk with Him about people. When we talk with Him first, He opens the doors.
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I recently saw a quote attributed to Leonard Ravenhill in which he said, “God doesn’t answer prayer. He answers desperate prayer!”
I confess that I have not always been so desperate in my praying. Yet, as I read the Psalms, they are filled with desperate prayers.
In Psalm 25, David says, “To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in you; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me.” I get a sense of desperation as in verses 4 and 5, he cries out: “Show me! Teach me! Lead me!” David wanted to know the Lord’s ways, His paths, and His truth. Then David says, “On You I wait all the day!” The desperation to hear from the Lord moved him to wait all day.
In Psalm 18:6 David says, “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him even to His ears.” Then verse 7, after David cries out to the Lord in his distress, it says, “Then the earth shook and trembled.” The rest of 18 describes God’s answer to this desperate cry for help.
Recently, I found myself in a dry place spiritually. I could find no reason for it. I just felt empty. Once again, I felt desperate. This time it wasn’t for souls or spiritual conversations but for my own spiritual well-being. Once again, I found myself prostrate on the floor--this time in front of the hearth in my family room, crying out to God for renewal and to be filled afresh and He met me.
I don’t know how important posture is but prostrate on the floor was what I sensed the Lord asking of me. When we are desperate, we will assume whatever posture the Lord asks of us.
Chuck Smith once said: “Today we are living in desperate times. Yet, the Church is not desperate before God in prayer.”
Have there ever been times that were not desperate? Any time there are lost people, broken marriages, people going without food and others being persecuted, it is a desperate time. When the Church is no longer broken for lost people, it is a desperate time. When the Church is content with being anything less than holy, it is a desperate time.
Even as I write, I am asking myself, “where am I desperate to see God work?” Am I really desperate and what will that desperation look like in my life and in my praying?
What about you? Are you desperate? Does that show up in your prayer life?
About the Pastor:
Rev Tom Swank is currently the Director of Prayer Ministry for the Missionary Church. In this capacity, he oversees its prayer ministry PrayFirst! A longtime pastor, who has led a number of churches into becoming strong praying churches, Tom also serves on the leadership team of the Denominational Prayer Leaders Network.
