and being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground Luke 22:44

Very Fervently – “Prayer is not ‘quiet time’ but a time of wrestling and passion.” So says Peter Leithart. He goes on to say that the contemporary worship experience of prayer, laced with soft romantic music and comfortable surroundings, will never prepare us for the wrestling match with God or the battle with evil. We are not taught to pray. We are taught to feel good.

When Yeshua stepped into the Garden on the night of His betrayal, He came face-to-face with the real enemy of all Mankind. It was not a praise and worship experience. The Son of Man struggled so much that His sweat was like blood. He agonized in prayer. The Greek is ektenesteron, a word that comes from the idea of stretching out or extending. It is about being pulled to the limit. Think of the rack. Do you pray so intently that you are stretched to breaking? Does your worship service end up on the floor, agonizing over the lost, weeping for sins, crying out to the Lord? In our culture, we would consider such behavior inappropriate. But, of course, without the practice of fervent prayer, we are simply not equipped to face the real enemy. Without community training in wrestling with God, we will fold when the pressure really comes.

Greek has a very limited vocabulary for prayer. English is even worse. But Hebrew has an enormously rich vocabulary around the concept of praying. That vocabulary includes everything from growls to shouts, from songs to crying, from meditation to sackcloth and ashes. The human experience before the King of glory is not limited to a few, stripped-down syllables. It must be as wide and deep as the object of its desire. Prayer must reflect God’s view of the world, and that view is not limited to “folding your hands and bowing your heads.” In the Hebrew worldview, prayer is life! Becoming human is the process of being in communication with the Creator. Therefore, I live only insofar as I am advancing in my communication with Him. Perhaps that is why the Psalms contain such depth in vocabulary and such emotional range for prayer. Human beings are the creatures that pray and prayer becomes the avenue of their existence.

So, where does this leave us? I don’t know about you, but I struggle with prayer. It is rarely restful for me. Often I don’t even know what to say. I feel inadequate to the task. I waver over asking a sovereign God who knows me better than I know myself to do anything for me. Since I want only to pray according to His will, I often find that I am lost about what requests to voice to Him. But, of course, He knows all this. There have been times when I could only cry, times when I shouted (and not in joy), times when I pleaded, but most of the time, I feel confused, so humbled that I don’t want to speak and desperate to hear His voice. Perhaps that’s why I pray the psalms. I know that my life with Him depends a great deal on my ability to communicate with Him – no, that’s not right. It depends on my willingness to speak with Him. Ability has little to do with it. The Spirit knows those things too deep to be uttered. I think in the end I am just one of those men who were never taught to pray. I believe it takes teaching and since I did not grow up in a culture of open, audible prayer, my growth was stunted. Now I need to catch up. How about you?

Topical Index: prayer, ektenesteron, Luke 22:44