"The Fruit of Prayer" Part 5

- 5 -

The Price

We may not always consciously think about it as we pray, and it is not necessary that we do.  However, the price of prayer, as it were, must be established so deeply within our hearts that it pervades the atmosphere of our communion with God.

    "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:19-22).

    To the degree the Lord Jesus Christ was smitten and rejected by His Father on the cross of Calvary, those who trust Him are received and "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6).  The price of prayer, therefore, is the broken heart and body suffered by our Savior as He died for our sins.  Every prayer we will ever offer throughout time or eternity, including those wordless sighs which often speak volumes more than eloquence, ascend to Heaven borne on the wings of Calvary's sacrifice.  We may come "boldly" because and only because we are enrobed with the spotless righteousness of the Lord Jesus.

    "And lest the shadow of a spot should on my soul be found, 

He took the robe my Savior wrought, and cast it all around!"

(From the hymn, "Awake My Heart, Arise My Tongue" - Isaac Watts).

    That pristine robe was savagely torn off the Lord Jesus by both God and man as He died on the cross.  Replacing it was our sin, both collectively, and in its essence: "Christ died for our sins... He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).  God's beloved Son became the object of His wrath so that we might become the subjects of His eternal devotion.  Thereby our prayers are His delight, and thereby we may always pray so long as we humbly and faithfully come to God by way of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus (Proverbs 15:8).  Remembering the price, the price of prayer, will go far in leading us to pray, and in forming within us the attitude of heart whereby communicating with God becomes our delight as well as His.

"For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father."

(Ephesians 2:18)