{"id":1229,"date":"2020-11-18T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbaralardinais:8888\/prayer-travail\/"},"modified":"2020-11-02T12:29:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T17:29:59","slug":"prayer-travail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hannahscupboard.com\/prayer-travail\/","title":{"rendered":"Travail – Liquid Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”<\/em> (Romans 8:26)<\/td>\n\"prayer\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What is travail and how can it be called a kind of prayer? Truthfully, it’s not spoken of much in churches. The dictionary calls it hard or agonizing labor, toil as in childbirth, deep distress or anguish encountered in achievement.<\/em> Sometimes (as we’ll see) it’s not a pretty sight, except maybe to God. Most Christians don’t encounter travail because we do not initiate it; God initiates it.<\/p>\n

Consider Jeremiah. He served as a prophet to the nation of Israel while they played the harlot with false gods when God’s judgment finally fell. He was there when \u201cNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, camped against it and built a siege wall all around it.\u201d<\/strong> (Jeremiah 52:4) Jeremiah had warned the people it was coming but they rejected him. Still, when Jerusalem fell he didn’t gloat. Rather, he was devastated and prayed for mercy even though he knew none was coming.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet and for good reason. He is a good picture for us of what travail looks like. \u201cMy soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart!\u201d<\/strong> (Jeremiah 4:19) \u201cOh that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!\u201d<\/strong> (Jeremiah 9:1) \u201cMy heart is broken within me, all my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken man, even like a man overcome with wine.\u201d<\/strong> (Jeremiah 23:9)<\/p>\n

After the demise of Jerusalem, Jeremiah wrote a soul scorching lament in which he says, \u201cFor these things I weep; my eyes run down with water; because far from me is a comforter, One who restores my soul. My children are desolate because the enemy has prevailed.\u201d<\/strong> (Lamentations 1:16)<\/p>\n

Oh, well this sounds like fun, huh? You might be praying right now that God never calls on you for any such thing as travail. But wait. It is precisely because it is God directed that it is also a tremendously satisfying kind of prayer. And, since it is so intense, God gives a cushion of grace to pull it off. Plus, it’s normally just a season and not a lifetime.<\/p>\n

I like to call travail liquid prayer because there are almost never any words\u2014no petitions\u2014no pleadings\u2014no claiming or declaring. Instead, there is strong emotion poured out in weeping, wailing and groanings. \u201cIn the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.\u201d<\/strong> (Romans 8:26) That passage is often used to describe praying in the spirit or praying in tongues but I think it more accurately describes travail.<\/p>\n

How Travail Works<\/h2>\n

Let’s talk about how travail usually works. When a spirit of travail comes to a person, it totally bypasses their mind and intellect. It is as if God pours into a willing partner his own emotions about an issue so they then become a point of contact on the earth for God’s will to be worked through. \u201cYour kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.\u201d<\/strong> (Matthew 6:10)<\/p>\n

Travail is for the benefit of others, sort of standing in the gap for someone or something. I have never seen anyone travail for themselves though I’m not saying that’s impossible. We may weep and cry about our own circumstances and we may even weep before the Lord over the deep issues of our life but that is not travail. Travail is by nature prayer outside our own realm of needs. Such as?<\/p>\n