Desperate Prayer

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Good morning, LordFather in Heaven, I seek You first-Your peace-Your knowledge and discernment. Build my trust. I take up my cross and follow...In Jesus' name…

Memory verse: Psalm 139:23–24 (ESV)

23  Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24  And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Verse of the Day: John 4:24

24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Today's reading: Exodus 19-20 Matthew 18:21-35

Desperate Prayer

“Desperate Times call for desperate measures.” We have heard this always but does it apply to prayer?

I say ‘especially’. Desperate measures in prayer in hard times, I believe, are always appropriate. Why?

First this question: “What can we do in desperate times but pray desperately?”

As ‘no-brainer’ as that sounds, we need to answer the question. Because praying may be the last resort some of us try-after we have exhausted ourselves mentally and physically trying to ‘fix it’-whatever ‘it’ is.

God is not meant to be our ‘ole stand-by’. He is our clear and present peace in the storm-the eye of the hurricane.

He must be our first thought in trouble-because He must be our first thought in celebration-because he is the first thought of our day-He must become the river of life we hear flowing when we first awaken.

This sounds needless to say, but ‘whatever we think of first, we will think of first”. This means whatever we dwell on is where our minds live.

Romans 8:5 “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”

Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Times of desperation can be times of great emotional trial or times of great physical pain and these times stretch us to our last nerve’s limit. This is why our consciousness of the Lord must be our life’s habit.

When we constantly walk with the Lord, we walk with all the peace and joy that is available in Him. We have in Christ, all the power of the resurrection in our suffering.

I believe Jesus showed us in His praying in the Garden of Gethsemane the night of His arrest.(Matthew 26:36-46)

He was sick to death of the pressure of sin and what was facing Him. He sweat drops of blood-which I see as ultimate pressure.

In the hardest scenario, we could be faced with death like Jesus-but never for the same reasons. He was carrying all our sins. We are faced with only our own.

This is to say, go with all your pain and heartache right back into God’s throne room and face Him. What we immediately realize is that He already knows.

Our Lord wants us to ask-but He knows that we may be screaming at the top of our emotional lungs and listens in peace until we have poured it out...then divine silence...where we hear His heart for us.

Again, all God wants and asks is our truth in His presence. If that is wrestling with Him, pleading with Him, or, yes, even screaming your anguish, God will never reject any of His children if they are nakedly truthful.

God wants us to be free when we are with Him-whatever that means. Humble and free and completely welcomed and completely loved-completely forgiven.

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

Your name be lifted above all others. Your kingdom come. Your will be done in my life. Give me today the bread you have for me. Forgive me of my self-centered ways. Deliver me from the enemy.

Father of all kindness and understanding,

In the name of Jesus,

Amen