Psalm 119:145-147 NRSVUE
With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O LORD.
I will keep your statutes.
I cry to you; save me,
that I may observe your decrees.
I rise before dawn and cry for help;
I put my hope in your words.
“Prayer is crying, laying hold on God, and spreading our wants before him with an earnest entreaty that he would not reject us, but would give us what we ask of him. It is a wrestling with the covenant angel; it is a sacred resolve, ‘I will not let thee go except thou bless me.’ If you want to conquer sin, know that it cannot be overcome by cold prayers, muttered in a heartless manner; it will not yield to empty ceremonies. Sin only flies before the blood of Christ and the power of the Eternal Spirit. These come to our rescue when, with cries and tears, we importune the Lord to help us. ‘I cried’; ‘I cried’; ‘I cried.’ Thrice does he repeat the words. His whole heart cried to God that he might be delivered from sin.” (C.H. Spurgeon, “Struggling against Sin,” The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons)
We cannot manufacture our own fervor to seek God’s help, but today, let’s ask for Spirit-supplied resolve and desperation to cry out to God 3x like the psalmist until we experience genuine breakthrough in prayer. Surely our Father helps us when we call on his name.
Prayer: Jesus, I cry to you. Thank you for your blood and the Spirit’s power that gives me real breakthrough and victory over sin. In Jesus’ name, amen.
-JL
