A Spiritual Labor
High-Intensity Prayer in High-Intensity Times
Excerpted and expanded from The One Year Salt and Light Devotional.1
John Hyde, an American missionary to India in the early 1900s, constantly had profound prayers weighing on his heart. One of his most consistent was a big one: “Give me souls or I die!”
That’s a far cry from the typical requests many of us make. We’re eager people who don’t know God to encounter him and receive his salvation, and we’ll pray toward that end. But as though our own lives were on the line?
Hyde approached all of his prayers with high intensity. He prayed for the people he ministered to and the cities he ministered in. He prayed for fellow missionaries and for God to raise up more workers to send into the harvest. Those who knew him told stories of his bedroom light coming on at 2 a.m., 4 a.m., and 5 a.m.—every night’s sleep punctuated by intercession for others. His evangelical outlook prompted far-reaching evangelical prayers, and God answered them.
We might wonder, Is that kind of inconvenience really necessary when talking to a God who is available all the time and who answers many prayers before we even voice them? But God has responded in power to people like Hyde who pray with tears and persistence. I have a hunch our petitions are often answered to the degree that our hearts are in sync with God’s on a matter — in purpose, in spirit, and in intensity. The more we pour ourselves into our pleas, the more he pours himself into the answers.
Paul wrote of Epaphras praying earnestly for the Colossians, describing his intensity with a wrestling term from which we get the word “agonize” (Colossians 4:12). He told the church he agonized for them and the Laodiceans as well (Colossians 2:1). He made it clear in words and by example that no matter how familiar and intimate we are with the Father, Son, and Spirit, our prayers are more than a casual matter and can accomplish a lot in the spiritual realm. Some might think us strange to spend a night on our knees. God welcomes the fellowship and the petitions.
Press through in your prayers to God, especially as you cry out for this generation around the world to know him. You may not always see what he does with your prayers, but the world is in desperate need of many of the things you will pray.
We see that everywhere we look, don’t we? All around us are signs of humanity and creation itself groaning for redemption, even as many of the most desperate are convinced they don’t need it.
In the age of the Internet, we’re used to making transactions with a click. But in the spiritual realm, a battle is raging, and clicks are not enough. As we stand between a sovereign God on a global mission and a world with gaping needs, casual prayers seem out of place.
Fill heaven with the sounds of your faith and perseverance, and expect answers to come. God changes the world through the earnest, persistent, even relentless requests of those who intercede on its behalf.
A Prayer for Praying
Father, forgive me for neglecting the one thing this world needs most: the prayers of your people. Fill my heart with zeal for coming to the throne of grace. Teach me to plead your promises. Align my prayers with your heart and answer in power. Amen.
Chris Tiegreen, The One Year Salt and Light Devotional (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2019), 93. Also published as The One Year Shine Your Light Devotional.