Earlier today I was surfing stations on Sirius Radio in my car when I picked up on this gem: “When it is the hardest to pray, pray the hardest.” Sometimes out of the blue, you hear something which you may have heard hundreds of times or which in other circumstances might not seem terribly pertinent. But in that moment, the  words hit the heart with the inescapable force of the Lord’s Voice. So it was this morning.

Prayer and praying have not come easily. I grew up saying lots of prayers from memory and could recite entire prayer books prescribed by others. But I knew nothing about the act of praying. Prayer was mindless, a ritual . Decades later, I no longer need religion’s  imprimatur  to speak with God. By grace and through His Word, I now can pray, talk, chat, visit, linger, speak, tarry with the Lord whenever I want to, despite   my faltering words.  It is an exquisite privilege. Sometimes praying comes as easily as breathing in the morning air.  Sometimes praying is more like slogging through a mud hole.

“When it is the hardest to pray, pray the hardest.”

The unforeseen crises which numb us are the hardest times of all. A child goes missing. The doctor takes the family aside. A once strong relationship shatters.  When life’s shock waves slam into every cell in my body, prayer seems impossible. Simply getting out of bed becomes monumental. And yet, especially then we’re to pray the hardest. Instead of crawling back into spiritual infancy, God tells us to kneel down and pray. He promises that when we call on His name, He will hear from heaven and deliver us.

If we pray like this when it’s hardest,

I called on Your name, O LORD, Out of the lowest pit. You have heard my voice, “Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help.”… Lam 3:55-56

 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications.… Psalm 130:1-2

Then God will answer us:

Now this I know: The LORD gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand. Psalm 20:6

 As Jesus was being crucified he prayed from the depths of His agony, not for Himself but for His tormentors.

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Luke 23:34

Then turning to the thief who called out to Him, Jesus fulfilled His own Word – the promise to save as prophesied in Psalms and all of Scripture.

Assuredly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise. Luke 23:44

When it is the hardest to pray…

The disciple of Jesus cannot be above his master. If the Lord prayed out of the depths, then so must His follower. Nothing, absolutely nothing   is so hard that it can separate us from the mercy and love of God.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38

 … pray the hardest.”

 The devil deceives us especially in this area. He does not want us to pray at all, let alone pray the hardest. “Praying the hardest” is usually understood to mean persistent, unceasing prayer, not giving up our supplications to be heard , even in the darkest hours. However.  “Out of our depths,” isn’t it the hardest to pray for someone else instead of ourselves?    For most people including Christians, praying for  enemies, forgiving others, blessing those who curse us is not easy even when we’re doing well.  But,  pray for the doctor who said it was cancer? Pray for the drug dealer who sold   dope to my child? Pray for the friend who walked away?  Pray for the person pounding nails into my wrists  and feet?

That is exactly what Jesus did. As His disciples, we are to  do no less. Therein lies the victory.

EAG