Heartfelt Prayer

Heartfelt Prayer

He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Mark 3:5

JESUS WENT INTO A SYNAGOGUE on the Sabbath and noticed a man with a deformed hand. He knew his opponents were watching to see whether he would violate the law (as they interpreted it) to heal the man or resist compassion to uphold the law. They knew his tendency and were waiting for the opportunity to use it as proof that someone who played fast and loose with God’s standards could not be from God. The problem was that they had completely missed what God’s standards really were.

In this moment, with everyone watching to see whether the compassionate Savior would behave compassionately, Jesus let the dramatic pause linger a bit longer. As it did, he looked at them with anger, saddened by their hard hearts. There was a time when pictures and films rarely portrayed Jesus with such emotions—some showed him as always serious, with a faraway gaze in his eyes—but according to the Gospels, those emotions were there. He was frequently moved with compassion (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; Mark 6:34); he reacted harshly to commercial exploitation of worship (Matthew 21:12; John 2:15); he prayed with anguish, loud crying, and tears (Luke 22:44; Hebrews 5:7); and he was driven to the cross by the anticipation of joy (Hebrews 12:2). We do not follow an unemotional Savior.

Just as you seek to conform your thoughts and your will to Jesus, also conform your emotions to his. Don’t let feelings determine your truth, but by all means, let them fuel your prayers and move you to action. That balance is difficult for many, but it fits his example. Your goal as his follower is to seek his purposes, think his thoughts, and feel his heartbeat, lining yourself up with him however you can. You have help in this; his Spirit lives within you and will influence and shape you to whatever degree you yield to his work. But you also have people and situations around you that will prompt emotional responses constantly. Don’t avoid those responses; lean into them and align them with God. His heart will feed your prayers, your prayers will move his heart, and he will accomplish his work through you.

The impulse to prayer within our hearts is evidence that Christ is urging our claims in heaven.