Breakthrough Prayers

Today’s Bible readings are Exodus 29:1-30:10, Matthew 26:14-46, Psalm 31:19-24, & Proverbs 8:14-26

 

Matthew 26:36-38

³⁶ Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” ³⁷ He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. ³⁸ He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Have you ever had a time that you were so crushed & pressured that you didn’t know what to do? Have you ever had a time when you were being tempted in ways that were greater than any other time in your life? Has there ever been a time when you were so stricken with grief that you thought you were going to die?

Everybody has times like this. We all have moments that press us in ways that we don’t know if we can handle. I know in my there have been many times when I felt as though I was going to be crushed under the weight of pressure. There have been times when the struggle was so great that I didn’t think I could handle it.

This is exactly when the enemy will pounce on us. He waits until we are weak. He waits until he sees an opening. He loves to hear people say things like:

1.      I can’t do this anymore.

2.      This is going to be the death of me.

3.      There is nothing more I can do.

4.      I may as well just quit.

This is when the enemy is at his best; when we are at our worse. Even though these thoughts & feelings may come we know they are not true because God has told us different in His Word.

1 Corinthians 10:13

¹³ The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

Let God be true & every man be a liar. My feelings can deceive me. My thoughts can be distorted. My perspective can become perverted. That is why we must learn to never let these things be the final say in our lives. God’s Word MUST have the final authority in our lives. We MUST make our feeling, thought, & perspectives line up with His Word. His Word is not going to change to line up with our irrational thinking. His Word is not going to change to agree with our emotional up’s & down’s. I can assure you that His Word is not going to change to match our screwing perspectives either.

The Word tells us that He will not let us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. What an encouragement for us. Now, I know there have been times when it seemed like it was more than I could bear. That is when I need to quote the rest of the verse—BUT with the temptation will also make a way of escape. Glory to God! He is our escape!

We see this happen in such a vivid way in the life of Jesus. He was going through the most difficult time that a person could ever possibly go through. He was about to be betrayed. Then He was going to be mocked, beaten, tortured, publicly humiliated, abandoned, & killed. He knew all of this in advance. He knew He had the power to stop it, but He also knew in order to save man-kind it had to be done.

Jesus had a human side to Him just like we do. It must have pulled Him in the same direction that ours would have pulled us if we were in His place. Imagine what it would have been like? Yet, as great as the grief was, He found strength the same way we do.

This was no ordinary experience. He was pressed to a point of death. His spirit was crushed. He tried to get His friend to help by staying with Him but they just fell asleep. That must have really hurt all the worse. These kinds of disappointments only make it harder. Yet, He never gave in. He found the escape that His Father offered. Let’s look at how He did it.

Matthew 26:39

³⁹ He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Matthew 26:42

⁴² Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away^[a] unless I drink it, your will be done.”

Matthew 26:44

⁴⁴ So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again.

This is the answer for us. We see that Jesus prayed & connected with God. He didn’t just pray once. He prayed until it lifted. There is a difference between prayer & praying through. Praying through is:

1.      Praying UNTIL it lifts.

2.      Praying UNTIL something happens.

3.      Praying WHEN everybody else is sleeping.

4.      Praying AFTER all our words are done.

5.      Praying OUT OF the hurt.

6.      Praying WITH desperation.

7.      Praying WHILE you’re alone.

This is a lost art of prayer today. People pray once & then give up. I believe that there is a place where you let the burden push you deeper in prayer than you ever have before. This is where the miraculous occurs. This is where we find the escape that we need. I remind you, GOD ALWAYS IS FAITHFUL TO HIS PROMISE. If you didn’t find the escape it was because you gave up in prayer. He will always make the escape available if we continue to keep our eyes on Him.

I want to challenge you to take a new look at things that you are struggling with. Maybe the problem isn’t what it seems to be at all. Maybe the problem is that you just need to pray through.

1.      Pray through the storm.

2.      Pray through the trial.

3.      Pray through the temptation.

4.      Pray through the mental attack.

5.      Pray through the attack on your body.

6.      Pray through the family situation.

God is NO RESPECTER of persons. He will do for you what He did for Jesus because you are His child too. The question is will do as Jesus did & pray through???

Pastor Richard Schlotter