“Then Jesus told his
disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared
about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the
plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
For some time he refused.
But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about
men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets
justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!”
And the Lord said, “Listen
to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring out justice for his
chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I
tell you he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son
of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?””
~Luke 18:1-8
Now, I’m not saying that our
prayers bother God, I believe
that He adores it when His children come to Him continually with their
requests. He actually wants us to be ‘annoying!’ I know that this seems
contradictory to our idea of how parents view their children’s request but it
is true, He says so! I know that when I was a kid I heard a lot of “No means
no!” Those decisions are final. But as we know, God does not always answer the
first time we ask, not that He doesn’t know what His answer will be, but it is His timing, not ours. God wants us to
show Him our passion. He wants us to commit and communicate our commitment to
Him!
I don’t know about you, but
I would rather just ask once and then check back in with God every once in a
while to say, “Um, are we there yet?” and then just go back to the rest of life
in the back seat of the mini-van until I remember again that we are still not there. God wants more! He wants us to PLEAD with
Him, to petition our request and keep asking until He shows us the answer.
I can picture it now:
Riding in the mini-van on
the way to Florida with my family, but instead of being a good little girl
sitting quietly in the back seat, not asking again if we are there yet, I
continue to rock forward from my book or game and ask again “Daddy, are we there yet?” Relentlessly bugging my
parents until we finally, after what feels like an eternity, arrive!”
But how do we do this? One
of the better analogies I have heard is that waiting on an answer from God is
like rocking in a rocking chair. When you go forward you are leaning in,
pressing in to God, in hopes of an answer. You are asking and looking for His
queue to get out of the chair. And then when you rock back, after the silence
or the dreaded “wait” answer, you relax in Him and trust that He will reveal
the answer in His time. But no matter how many times you go forward in that rocking
chair, you don’t get up, or give up, until He answers. And then, regardless of
the answer, you get up from that place, accepting His answer, trusting that He
has the absolute best for you, because He does!
So, if God already knows what the answer will
be why doesn’t He just let us in on it? Perhaps it is more for us than it is
for Him? We grow and build our relationships when we do the hard things;
commitment is hard, consistence is hard, discipline is hard, but these things
are for our benefit! They grow us as people and in our relationship with God. I
may never know why God wants us to do this, but as my parents told me, “because
I said so.” When you are a kid you
hate hearing this answer, but sometimes it is better for us to just learn to
trust that our parents, and God, have good intentions for their children and if
we obey, we will see the results of that obedience.
So what are you bothering
God about? Or have you given up your pleading?
I began writing this several
weeks ago and have just now had the chance to come back to it. The scripture
above prompted this blog and I believe God showed this me to encourage me to
continue to get on my knees! On my knees for my team, for my walk with Him, and
for the people we will meet along the way. But specifically He has pressed on
my team and me to pray for our squad to be fully funded before we leave. I
would love it if you would partner in prayer with us for this.
As I am writing this blog, I
just got an anonymous donation of $300.00. God is so good! This brings tears to
my eyes. Thank you Jesus! God is honoring our relentless prayers.
Fully funded, here we
come!!!!
Blessings!
