The dictionary defines supplication as a prayer to God or a respectful request to someone in authority for help. It is a plea, an appeal, a prayer, a pleading. The act of supplicating is a humble request, entreaty, petition or prayer. In short it means to ‘ask’.
Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
Luke 22:43-45 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
This type of asking is not superficial or frivolous, it is serious, sweat breaking and wholehearted. Your mind is focussed, the subject is all embracing, your heart is engaged. It is the type of prayer Jesus prayed when he sweated great drops of blood in the garden of Gethsamene before he was crucified.
This is the prayer of someone who means business with God, and it is the prayer of someone who God takes seriously and answers, as He answered Jesus.
“Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart…
Jeremiah 29: 12,13 (New Revised Standard Version NRSV)
Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
Matthew 7:7 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
This is an invitation direct from God Himself to call upon Him without holding back, with all our hearts, throwing our hopes and dreams on to Him. Then and only then does He promise to be found by us. This is the way to pray, and a promise to claim.
The mystery of prayer is a two way street. God is the willing participator, we are the invited participant, the result dependent on our heart attitude. Are we childlike, empty, vulnerable, at rock bottom? It is then God will hear from heaven and reveal Himself to our hungry, humble hearts.
The Lord Jesus stands and knocks at the door of our hearts, asking to be allowed in. The door to our heart is on the inside.
20 Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.
Revelation 3:20 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)