The cry rings out, a soul in desperation, seeking groundshaking prayers, and rightly so, for prayer is the very breath of the new nature. Yet mark this: when the heart quakes within you, do not reach for a Prayer Book, nor borrow another’s devotions, but go straight to God, saying, “O Lord, You know what I need!” Spread your case before Him, press your suit with all the arguments you can muster, for true prayer is pleading with the Most High. He delights in the humble spirit that takes hold of His own promises and will not let Him go until He blesses.
But let me tell you, groundshaking prayer may be answered, yet not always in the way you expect. The Lord reserves the right to answer your cry with something better than you have devised. And if the answer tarries, do not imagine that prayer is all a fancy or that you should forsake the closet. Mighty prayer will yet prevail if it has but time. Cry out in the daytime and at night, and the Lord will still hear. Perhaps sin has crept in and hinders you, search your heart even now. Or perhaps you need to get the promise first, to find that clear word on which you may stand and then offer the prayer, and it shall be answered as sure as God is God.
Do not, I beg you, yield to the dark suggestion that prayer is useless. It is the most essential thing in moving the hand that moves the world. Intercessory prayer is the sweetest God ever hears, for it tastes of Christ’s own work, who ever lives to plead for us. And such prayer is exceedingly prevalent, it has stayed plagues and opened prison doors. When you pray for this matter to go well, you are engaging in a work that fits you to become God’s instrument, and it brings down the Divine power that makes a Church shake with holy excitement. Yet do not let your prayer be a surface thing, a mere form. Let it be inwrought, shot through the warp and woof of your being, until prayer becomes a part of yourself. That is the prayer which shakes the gates of Heaven.
You ask for groundshaking prayers right now. Then quicken your soul! Is there not a sluggishness in all of us? We need to be quickened in private prayer, quickened in public prayer, quickened in our secret wrestlings. This very plea may itself be an index of life, for the truly quickened spirit cries out for more. So take your place before the mercy seat, plead the promises, and remind your heavenly Father of His Word, He cannot forget, but He loves to hear His children hold Him to it. And remember, even as Peter in his terror cried, “Depart from me,” grace transformed him, and he learned to say, “Come nearer to me.” In your urgency, do not restrain prayer; do not let fear or haste keep you from the only help there is. Trust Christ utterly, for He is able to save and to carry this matter through, from first to last, without any help of yours. The prayer of faith, dropped into the ground with hope, shall not miscarry. Let us then, with one accord, continue in prayer and supplication, expecting the answer.