Articles
His Prayer Was Heard
His Prayer Was Heard
Concerning Jesus, the Hebrew writer affirms here in chapter five that Jesus was called by the Father to be a high priest (vs. 4), he was declared to be the son of God by the Father (vs. 5), he lived in the flesh (vs. 7), and he suffered (vs. 8). Along with such, it is affirmed that he offered up both prayers and supplication with loud crying and tears.
The interesting point is that there is a seeming contradiction made: although he prayed, he yet suffered, AND his prayer was heard. How can that be?
The problem is OURS, in that we would make the ONLY answer to such prayer to be removing the suffering. That didn’t happen, but something else did! THROUGH such suffering He learned the meaning and extent of obedience. He was strengthened, supported, and comforted WHILE suffering to the end that He was FAITHFUL – perfectly faithful, faithful unto death.
In our prayers and supplications (prayers /requests both for ourselves and for others), we often encounter situations that are not going to be removed. At such times it seems prudent to me to pray for courage, strength, moral conviction, and faith so as the problem is survived while maintaining faithfulness to God. Such can come not only of situational providence, but also often through the support of others.
Pray. Pray for self in difficult times. Pray for others. God does hear and answer, but often the answer is not what we thought it would be.
Hugh DeLong
