"The Church not ceased"

A second secret of effective prayer is expressed in this same verse 5 of chapter 12 of the Acts, with these words : "never ceased". The Osterwald version makes "never stop addressing" with "prayers". Neither of these translations gives the full force of the original Greek expression, which literally means "in a tense manner to the extreme". It's a wonderfully expressive word that depicts an attitude. He represents the soul under the tension of a burning and pressing desire. The word "intensely" might make it more accurately. It is the same term which, applied to our Lord, was translated "urgently" when it is said of him : "Being in agony, he prayed more urgently, and his sweat became like lumps of blood falling to the ground" (Luke 22:44)

We read in Hebrews that "in the days of his flesh, Christ presented prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears" (Hebrews 5: 7). In Romans, Paul exhorts the saints who are in Rome "to fight with him in their prayers" (Romans 15:30). The word translated "fight" is that which applied to athletic games and wrestling. In other words, the prayer that carries it over to God is the one where we make our whole soul pass to God in the agony of an intense desire.

Many of our prayers are empty of power because the heart is not there. We rush into the presence of God, hurriedly rush through a series of petitions, we jump up and we leave. After an hour, if someone asked us what we just prayed for, we would be hard-pressed to answer...

If we put so little heart in our prayers, we can not wait for God to put a lot of answers to it. There is much talk today of the rest of faith, but there is also something called the fight of faith, in prayer as well as in action.

Jeremy Sourdril