PREVAILING PRAYING

 

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”  (Matthew 7:7-8)

We cannot learn to pray effectively without persevering in the discipline.  Any skill we develop requires persistent practice—and that is true in the spiritual realm as well.  What comes easily is valued cheaply.  That will never be the case with prayer.  Prayer is work.  It is how God accomplishes great things in the world—so a corresponding intensity is required when we pray.  Prayer is warfare.  When we enter the prayer chamber, we will get Satan’s notice—and the victories are hard fought.  The enemy of our souls will see to that.

We ask, and go on asking—not because God is deaf.  He knows what He will do and what we will say before the thought even enters our minds, much less escapes our lips!  Rather, it is to our benefit to focus our minds and mouths upon great spiritual concerns.  Far better to persist in thinking about God and speaking to God than being distracted by the seductive appeal of this world.

We seek, and continue to seek—not that God is stingy.  Our Father loves us and is eager to answer us, but He desires our love in return.  Our prayers may be seeking what His hand may give us, when He wants us to seek His face—to find delight simply in spending time with Him—for nothing else can satisfy our soul.  God alone can meet the deepest need of the human heart, and when we seek Him first, everything lesser is thrown in!

We knock, and keep knocking—not that God is aloof.  He sees our approach—and has, in fact, sent the invitation!  The knocking is not to beat the door down, but to break down a spirit of self-sufficiency in us—the very rotten core of the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve consumed.  We are reduced to the level of beggars, pleading with a great King to open the door to His palace.  That is a good thing, for it is in that state of desperation that God has us where He can bless us and not ruin us.

So, just remember, delays are not denials in the economy of God.  The prayers are a matter of our time—and it is time well spent on earth.  The answers are a matter of God’s timing—and He will do it on the schedule that best suits the ultimate in bringing Him glory and the good of ourselves and others.

Prayer is spiritual, therefore, making them eternal.  Some of our prayers may not even be answered during our lifetime—yet, they remain in effect, reserved in Heaven’s chambers, until that blessed day that God moves to respond according to His sovereign purpose.  So, let us not faint—but once more ask, seek and knock.  Then leave it in God’s all-wise and all-powerful hands to take the seeds of prayers we have sown, lying dormant, and to cause them to germinate according to His perfect and precious will!