Sincerity & Guided Passion – A Must For Effective Prayer

I like passion and passionate people. I am of that school of thought that says passion is necessary to be truly successful; as the saying goes “follow your passion.” So passion is a good thing but good as it is, it is an emotion so our passion has to be guided and/or controlled. Unguided passion is a big problem. Everything needs to be controlled hence the bible admonishes us to be “temperate in all things.” Interestingly, God also looks out for passion when we come to the place of prayer especially when we come to ask for something. We have to really desire “it” when we get to that place of prayer because He says we get what we desire when we pray so that it is not just about talking but also about how much we desire it. Unfortunately, we often come to the place of prayer without desire or with one thing on our hearts whilst we are asking God for another so that the two don’t often come together enough to form passion. Just as an aside, this might also be a good time to remind us that God sees our hearts for Himself so we don’t have to talk about that thing we want all the time compelling others to listen and frustrating them thereby for God to know we really desire it; He is able to see that longing if it is in our hearts. Sometimes also, It would seem like we have been so battered by deferred hope that our hearts have “become sick” or could it be that our insincerity is affecting our ability to be very honest even with God so that unburdening our hearts and telling Him the truth has become difficult. Now more than ever before, we need to fix these issues that impact on our prayers negatively. With all that is happening in the world today, we definitely need our prayers to be effective.

James 5: 16b KJV “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Proverbs 13: 12a KJV “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”

Mark 11: 24 KJV “Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”

Unfortunately, our prayers may be losing strength. If our prayers cannot cause God to move for us, then they are ineffective. When we ask God to please do a particular thing for us, it should be because we want it enough to ask Him and I believe that God also often desires to do it but God requires us to do the asking in a particular way. Unfortunately, today we are always faced with several options; different ways that appear to be able to give us that which we are asking of God so we keep trying them and sometimes we are praying whilst trying those options but our hearts are not really in the prayer. If anything we are trying to get God to follow up and ensure that our chosen option gives us our desired result and God would definitely prefer to have His way which is in truth, the best way. God will not be used and He is not deceived. We cannot compel Him to do what we want Him to do and God demands sincerity. Please do not get “smart” with Him.

James 5: 17 “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed…”

Elias was passionate too but it was controlled. A man that comes to the place of prayer often, would know that He needs passion. We can always learn to channel our emotions appropriately like Elias instead of letting it get the better of us and by the time we come to that place where it is required, there is nothing left. If we want to move God, we must be careful not to abuse or exhaust what we need before we get to the places where we need them; we certainly need the answers to our prayers. Our prayers do need to be marked by great intensity of feeling and if you need to shake your heads to make that point please go ahead and shake it like we often do, just don’t shake it without impact. If we continue to pray these ineffective prayers, we would eventually get very frustrated, disappointed at and angry with God as many of us are but in truth, that will not change God or make Him any less; it is also not of any benefit to us. Let us believe God afresh and call Him in the way that He would prefer for us to. If we do that, even if we don’t get what we want, we would enjoy the comfort of knowing that He is working on it though His timing isn't aligning with ours.