FWD: Morning Manna (Feb. 3); BP: Heb. 5:5-10; RBTTY: Mt. 22:1-22; Ex.

 
Samuel D. High
sdhigh@aristotle.net

 

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-----Original Message-----
From: Apostle Tom <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 06:02:35 -0600
To: <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Subject: Morning Manna (Feb. 3); BP: Heb. 5:5-10; RBTTY: Mt. 22:1-22; Ex.
 

February 3                                                                                            “With Strong Crying and Tears”

 

“. . .Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death and was heard in that He feared.”

                                                                                                                                                Hebrews 5:7

     Agonizing petitions are often the prelude to answered prayers.

     Someone in the sports world once said, “No pain, no gain.”  Likewise, a preacher once cried, “There can be no Pentecost without plenty cost.”  So true, so true.

 

     Why, then, do we feel such strong statements are not applicable to praying?

     Today’s Manna is a vivid reminder of Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion (Lk. 22:44).  He’d just finished praying, “Father, if You be willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done” (v.42).

 

     Although there’s debate as to why He prayed this—i.e., “Was He afraid to die?,” being “tempted in every way as we” (Heb. 4:15) or “Was He wanting to make sure the Cross was the ultimate way to accomplish His mission?”—the fact remains His prayer was a deep, heart-wrenching, agonizing one.

 

     He was omniscient and, therefore, knew what lay before Him.  He also knew that three days later He’d be raised from the dead (Jn. 2:19).  Even so, His prayers were so intense that “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Lk. 22:44).

 

     Oh, dear Pilgrim, have we ever been so moved to intercession and supplication??

     No doubt some reading these words have.  You had a wayward child, who played the prodigal, and ran away from home with no forwarding address.  The doctor used the “C” word with you, devastating you as you slumped down in his office chair, your mind reeling as your whole world caved in.

 

     Or, perhaps your “strong crying and tears” sprang from your own sinfulness.  You were the one who “went to the far country” (Lk. 15:12) and “wasted your substance with riotous living, spent all and began to be in want” (Lk. 15:13-14).  Your guilt and shame weighed heavily upon you as “you came to yourself” (Lk. 15:17a) and realized how far you’d strayed from Home, resulting in depravity and degradation.

 

     But, instead of staying where you were, you “offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save you from death and were heard because you feared Him.”  And, the merciful Heavenly Father “inclined unto you, heard your cry and brought you up out of that horrible pit—out of the miry clay—set your feet upon a rock, established your goings and has put in your mouth a new song, even a song of praise” (Ps. 40:1b-3a).  Hallelujah!!

 

     If so, praise the Lord; if not yet, pray, Pilgrim—pray humbly, agonizingly, insistently and persistently!  Doubt not that the Father will hear—for He has promised He will (Rom. 10:9-10, 13).  Why not stop right now and tell Him what’s on your heart?