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THE NEED TO TRAVAIL IN PRAYER
This article was posted on Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The Need To Travail
What is travail? It’s physical or mental hardship; pain and suffering; the pain and labor involved in childbirth. Defined by New Webster Dictionary of the English Language. In prayer there are three basic facts that will answer what travail is all about.
1. Travail is the dying part of the prayer. An expectant mother often times she is at the brink of death during childbirth. The pain is such that even modern medications may fail to relieve all of it and the labor is actually very hard work. This pain is necessary and might be labeled the ‘dying part’ of a mother’s experience. Only as she willingly suffers and works can new life come forth.
2. Travail is the energy put into our prayer. God does not hear us because of the length of our prayer, but because of the sincerity of it. Prayer is not to be measured by the yard, nor weighed by the pound. It is the might and force of it- the truth and reality of it- the energy and the intensity of it. Travail, then, is the might and force of our prayer. It concerns the intensity with which we pray.
3. Travail is the depth of desire in prayer. The Master of all prayer said, “what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them. (Mark 11:24). Desire is paramount to powerful praying. James later declares, “Ye have not, because ye ask not.”(James 4:3) Perhaps we could paraphrase this, “Ye have not because ye want not.” The fact is, unless we want a thing, we will do nothing to acquire that thing. Further, the more desire we have for this want the more intensity will manifest itself as we have for want, the more intensity will manifest itself as we seek fulfillment of this want. E. B. Bounds said that “desire is not merely a simple wish but a deep-seated craving. It is an intense longing for attainment.” Desire precedes prayer, accompanies it, is followed by it. Prayer is really but oral expression of desire. The deeper the desire, the stronger the prayer. Only prayers which are meant with all the heart and soul are really answered.
(Above information are excerpts from Literature World Crusade)
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