Praying passionately - All The Word for Today Daily Devotionals for 2025

The Word for Today - Sunday, December 15, 2024
by Bob and Debby Gass

Details

Praying passionately

‘Always labouring fervently for you in prayers,’ Colossians 4:12 NKJV

Here is what Paul said about Epaphras, a disciple so obscure you probably don’t recognise his name: ‘Epaphras … is … always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you, …’ (Colossians 4:12-13 NKJV). James writes, ‘… pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much’ (James 5:16 NKJV).

To be fervent is to be passionate! Bishop Joseph Hall, a seventeenth-century Anglican minister, was once imprisoned in the Tower of London for his faith. He lived his final years on a farm in the country writing devotional classics. Here is what he remarked about prayer: ‘An arrow, if it be drawn up but a little way, goes not far; but if it be pulled up to the head, flies swiftly and pierces deep. Prayer, if it be only dribbled forth from careless lips, falls at our feet. It is the strength of [discharge] and strong desire that sends it to heaven, and makes it pierce the clouds. It is not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are; nor the rhetoric of our prayers, how eloquent they be; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they be; nor the music of our prayers, how sweet our voice may be; nor the method of our prayers, how orderly they may be; nor the divinity of our prayers, how good the doctrine may be—which God cares for. Fervency of spirit is that which availeth much.’

The Lord answers the prayers of those who pray passionately. So, get serious about prayer and give yourself fully to it!

SoulFood: Heb 11:1-6 Matt 21:18-22 Matt 8:5-13 Mark 6:1-6

More From Our Daily Devotional Archives

The LORD is near
for Tuesday, December 3, 2013
by Jacob Redekop, Brian Reynolds, John van Dijk, Eugene P. Vedder Jr

A WORD ON CLEAVING TO THE LORD (2)

He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.
(Acts 11:23)
A WORD ON CLEAVING TO THE LORD (2)

Observe, they are exhorted with purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. A distracted heart is the bane of a Christian. When my heart is filled with Christ, I...More

Open Heavens
for Wednesday, December 11, 2013
by Pastor E.A Adeboye

WAYS OF DELIVERANCE

In

Bible in one year:
Job 14-17

Action...More

The LORD is near
for Wednesday, December 25, 2013
by Jacob Redekop, Brian Reynolds, John van Dijk, Eugene P. Vedder Jr

Having opened their treasures, they offered to Him gifts, gold, and frankincense

"Having opened their treasures, they offered to Him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."
(Matthew 2:11)

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and when the tidings reached the guilty tyrant who sat upon the Jewish throne, he "was troubled and all Jerusalem with him." The men of the city had...More

Open Heavens
for Tuesday, April 8, 2014
by Pastor E.A Adeboye

THE BREVITY OF TIME

How recklessly this age speeds to self destruction! The word of God is accurate and authentic in its prediction of the latter end of the world and in warning His saints of the end times, so that they are not overtaken by the prevalence of evil in this age! In virtually every facet of life, there is an overturning...More