In Psalm 40:1, David said God inclined unto him and heard his cry – not his whisper, but his cry. A cry in this context is a prayer made with violence. Matthew 11:12 says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”

You must therefore be violent in your dealings with things of the Kingdom of heaven. In Mark 10:46-52, the kind of prayer that Bartimeous prayed is what we call a cry. There was a multitude there just like there are multitudes calling on God every minute, but in the midst of that multitude, one man cried and God inclined His ear to Him.

When you cry to God and He inclines His ear to you, He lifts you out of the miry clay. Miry clay simply means a situation so bad that unless help comes from outside, you are done for. The more a person in quicksand struggles, the deeper he or she would go into it. It is a situation where there is nothing you can do on your own to be free. When in that kind of situation, you don’t whisper, you cry. There is a practical example in Mark 2:1-12, where a man paralysed from the neck down was brought to Jesus. Every part of his body was dead except the neck upwards. There was nothing any doctor could do for him, but thank God for Jesus Christ. When Jesus saw him, He said, “Arise” and he came out of the miry clay. In the name that is above every other, you will come out of the miry clay.

Another example is in 2 Kings 4:1-7, where the widow of the son of the prophet was so badly in debt, the creditors said they would sell her children within 24 hours if she didn’t pay. She didn’t whisper, she cried to the man of God. Before the 24 hours were up, she had more than enough to pay her debt. I pray God will incline His ears to you today as you cry out to Him, in Jesus’ name.

Whenever people cried unto the Lord again and again, He would eventually turn and attend to them. Let that be your disposition when you go to God in prayer. Don’t pray like a gentleman or lady, with finesse. Cry to Him with all your strength, and He will incline His ear to you.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

More like fervent prayer.