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…he has a great zeal for you’ (vv. 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!
