“And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44)
SECOND—Prayer Will Cost You EFFORT
We think we can say a little “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep” type of prayer and everything is good; we’ve done our part. But that is not real praying.
Yesterday, we saw that prayer will cost you TIME, but it will also cost you EFFORT. While Jesus was praying, He wasn’t playing!
It says that He was “in an agony” while He prayed. The word “agony” means struggle. If you have ever felt that you had a difficult time trying to pray, you are not alone. Jesus struggled in his praying.
In fact, it was so intense that it says “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Wow! That is some intense praying, right there!
His disciples had already given up on praying because (v.45) says, “And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping…” Can you relate to that? I sure can!
Why is it such a struggle to pray? Because Satan fights prayer! Guy King said, “No one’s a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil; not that he practices it, but that he suffers from it.” Therefore, he fights us when we try to pray.
Jesus struggled; He fought back Satan in His prayer time. Maybe we wouldn’t struggle as much in LIFE, if we learned to struggle more in our PRAYER CLOSET!