How are you feeling? Is there oppression in your spirit? Do you feel heavily burdened about a condition in your life or the life of your family that is tearing you apart, keeping your pillow wet at night, and causing great anguish in your life?
Anxiety and trouble about a circumstance in life often creates strong emotion or passion. Emotion often presents itself in crying or becoming angry at the problem experienced. The debilitating passion intensifies when the appearance of inevitable hopelessness seems to have no end. The light at the end of the tunnel is nowhere to be seen and feelings of desperation enlarge.
Are you there today? Your life may have multiple situations that could be summarized this way. It could be the health of a loved one or neighbor, the spiritual condition of a child or spouse, the lack or loss you experience in your inward person daily.
No matter what your troubled, anxious condition is, there is hope. There is something you can do. The passion you feel so strongly is meant to drive you on to the solution. The anxiety that makes your heart skip beats in thoughts of uncertainty that oppresses you can be remedied by doing this one thing . . . spilling your heart before God.
Yes, God has given you a passion in your very being for the primary purpose for you to bring it to Him. He wants you to spill your passion to Him. Even if you’ve prayed 10-thousand times and the trouble is still there, pour out your trouble passionately before God.
There was a woman who did just that. Year after year she would be oppressed in spirit because she passionately desired to have a child. Still year after year she was childless. She wept bitterly. Her appetite was gone. There was no composing herself, even at the dinner party. Tears flowed freely and sadness was her whole demeanor.
Everyone around her experienced the pit in their stomach because of the passionate desperation with which she felt her great need. She was beyond the “I would like this” stage. The resound of her heart was “I GOTTA HAVE THIS . . .OR I’M GONNA DIE!” Hiding her feelings and the anxiety of her condition could not be managed.
Others around her tried to sooth her with how much they meant to her. They attempted to show her they could meet the deep longing she had and that the passion she felt could be filled with something they could provide. Solutions offered did not fill the great hole of need she had.
What this woman in 1 Samuel 1 did serves as an example for us. The steps she took, the prayer she prayed, and the relief she experienced offers a roadmap for us. This woman of an “oppressive spirit” poured her heart out before God. When the passions of your life have you beside yourself, you can follow the map on the road she left. You too can spill your passion before the Lord.
Pour out your heart to Him like this woman did . . .
- Come to the Lord with your passion. When you are feeling the strongest about the troublesome and anxious circumstance in your life is the best time to bring it before the Lord. Be unmanaged before Him. Spill it all out to Him.
- Acknowledge God to be Lord of all. Put God in His place and you stay in your place. State before the Lord who He is to you and who you are to Him.
- Request God to see you in your great distress and need. As the people at the dinner party viscerally felt anxiety because of the oppression in spirit the woman exhibited, ask God to look and feel a great compassion in His countenance for the great distress and trouble you are experiencing.
- Ask God for exactly what you think would relieve your oppressive state. Declare before Him what you are willing to give to Him in exchange for Him helping you in your great distress and anxiety.
- Continue in humility, pouring out your passion before God. Keep on declaring God to be God, stating your great need, requesting God to meet your need, and testifying of your willingness to give of yourself continually in service to God.
- Be confident your pray was heard by God and you are not worthless, but of great price in His eyes. Recognize His willingness to hear and answer the passion of your heart that you’ve poured out to Him.
The woman in 1 Samuel 1 was Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel. She spilt her passion before the Lord. She poured out to God all that concerned and troubled her. The central thing that provoked her to feel such an oppression in her spirit was what she laid before the Lord.
Today, what are you passionate about? What oppresses you in your spirit? The troubles of your life, what are they? What would identify as the root cause of your cloud of darkness you feel surrounds you?
Use these 6 steps to spill out your passion in a Biblical way before the Lord. Set aside some time and walk through them. Spill out your passion before the Lord. Pour out your heart to him, unmanaged. Then hear, “Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.”
Hannah got her oppressive spirit lifted and her prayers answered. As you follow Hannah’s steps to success in prayer, may you too experience the lifting of your troubled emotions and the granting of your petition.
Written by: Anne Gurley
