Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Persevering in Prayer


  The hardest part of living as a Christian, at least for me, is holding on tight to faith that God, our Father, is truly present in our struggles. Please note that I did not say it is impossible to have faith that God is present, but hard to hold tightly to that faith. Face it - life deals out a lot of garbage at those of us who believe in the One Who created all things with a fiercely burning fire that will not be snuffed out! Though we are new creations in Christ, we still have remnants of our old selves, and this is where we live: in the middle of spirit and flesh. I know that I naturally want to find pleasure and instant satisfaction (flesh), but the fact is we now have to understand that those are temporary gratifications - that the focus needs to now be examining why our flesh wants the immediate satisfactions and then allow our spirit to help us in denying our flesh if it is not going to glorify God. See, in the flesh, we want to glorify ourselves - but when we glorify God, our spirit is the victor in the war waged between flesh and spirit. All we do should now be done to give glory to God, not ourselves. Our flesh and spirit war with each other daily and, in obedience, we must regularly submit ourselves to God, Who created us for a greater purpose than that which we could achieve by our own will. After all, His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 5:9).

    It is in this space of submission to God that I want to camp for a bit. You see, it is in our daily exercise of submitting that we flex our spiritual muscles to persevere, to be steadfast, in our walk to be light and salt in service to God. What I have noticed is that we have many ways to be steadfast: in prayer, in service, in our actions, in humility, and in our walk of faith. The way I would like to highlight in this post is being steadfast in prayer. Recently, I resumed reading "The Joshua Code" by O.S. Hawkins (2012) in an effort to memorize key scriptures to help build my faith and to write the words of God on my heart. I was struck deeply with the exhortation found in Matthew 7:7, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you", in which believers are told to continue asking, seeking, and knocking. Allow me to share what I gleaned from this simple instruction to persevere in prayer. The hardest part of prayer is going beyond the presenting of the petition (asking) to God. We often mistakenly think that asking is all there is in prayer life. Truth is, we also must press and persist in our prayer life (the seeking and knocking). Following are the lessons I have learned from my reading of "The Joshua Code" about persevering in prayer.

    In Ephesians 6:16 we are told that "[i]n every situation (to) take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one" - which just supports how important prayer is in preparing us, but also strengthening us for the battles we encounter.  Hawkins (2012) explains that having a vibrant and virtuous prayer life, along with Scripture memorization and meditation, are vital to having a victorious Christian life. We know that the Father talks to us through the Word and we speak to Him by way of our "prayers of praise, petition, and intercession" (Hawkins, p. 50). In addition, Hawkins explains that the effective prayer is framed, or encased, in His will for our lives. What I took from this first level of prayer of presenting our petitions is that we do have the promise of receiving from God, without a question or doubt. Because we know His will in a situation, we can come boldly to the throne of grace, and have assurance of heart (confidence) that we will receive (Philippians 4:6; 1 Kings 8:45). The hiccup is that we are, as humans, often too proud or rely on our own strength to ever humble ourselves to ask for help - whether from another person or *gasp* God (which is utterly ridiculous since God provides for all our needs). I remember a time when I was too proud to ask for help with the daunting task of yard upkeep after my divorce. I had this feeling that I would be judged harshly if I asked for help - and I certainly did not want to be judged for a failed marriage must less the fact that yard work had gotten to be more than I could tackle on my own. Simply stated, by my own resistance to lay aside my pride, I was allowing my flesh to win and, as a result, was selfish. Nobody likes a selfish person, nor do we set out to be selfish, but that is what being too proud produces. We all know that pride goes before a fall - so it must be dealt with through submitting to God and His will. Personally, I strive to always be in line with and found in God's will.

    The second part of Matthew 7:7 speaks to seeking - or as Hawkins (2012) says "pressing a petition". This is the kind of prayer where a believer does not know the will of the Father in a situation/struggle and seeks until he or she finds it. In essence, a deeper form of prayer that comes from a level of maturity as it sets self aside and is propelled by the deep yearning to know God's will as it pertains to the situation or struggle being faced.  This pressing consists of an intense search for the heart of God in addition with consistent, habitual Bible reading. The result of pressing a petition is the promise that the believer will find God's perfect will for his or her life - just do not give up in this pursuit. Nothing of God will be returned void to those who have faith in His perfect plan for them. I am reminded of the times I wonder what my purpose on this side of Heaven is when the Holy Spirit will snap me back and bring to mind the fact that God created me for a purpose - His purpose. I may not have conscious knowledge of that divine purpose (His will), but I can rest knowing that He will not allow it to be unfulfilled (Jeremiah 29:11; Psalms 40:5).

    The third part in Matthew 7:7 speaks about persisting with a petition (knocking). If you have ever gone to someone's home and their doorbell was broken, you have knocked on a door. You also realize that this requires much endurance since you could be knocking for a LONG TIME! Maybe even found yourself muttering under your breath "where in the world is my friend? Why won't he answer the door?". Hmmm - have you ever wondering if Jesus would have said that of us when He stood at our door and knocked (Revelation 3:20)? Beloved friends, our Father sent His Son so that none of us would perish but have eternal life - Christ came down from Heaven to gather His sheep who had wandered astray and bring us back into the flock - His Flock! He chased after us - not the other way around. Let that sink in. If God did that for us, then how can we not take all our worries boldly to the throne of grace and lay our petitions before Him? Now, the idea of persisting could look a lot like pestering or nagging God - right? But, it is not that at all.  In my reading, Hawkins illustrated this level of prayer as being much like raising children. When a child is small, parents teach them to ask for things like juice, toys, or snacks. As they grow up, parents teach them how to seek after or pursue their desires such as exceptional grades, college education, a career, or something they are passionate about. But because parents do know what is best for their children, they will encourage them to exhibit a level of endurance or real earnestness to do so until doors are opened for them. In other words, parents continue to encourage their children to not give up. This thought comes back to me - "If at first you don't succeed try, try again". My parents have always offered supportive encouragement to their three kids - and that has continued with their grandchildren as well. It is the ever-present exhortation to keep moving forward, even against great adversity, until the object of pursuit has been obtained. However, there are times when, even with the greatest of steadfastness, the pursuit ends with disappointment. Hawkins (2012) explains that because God always answers prayer that we must understand the 4 Ds of prayer: direct, denied, delayed, and different. Sometimes our prayers are answered almost as quickly as they are lifted in the way we requested. Every now and then, prayers are denied - because He knows what is best. Yet, other times, the answer does not come quickly (is delayed) and we can get discouraged. But be of courage because God does hear and responds. Lastly, some prayers are answered differently than how we would expect - again because God knows what is best for His children.

    One last nugget I would leave is this: perseverance builds our character traits of patience, gratitude, respect, and appreciation. The first two traits stand out to me like neon! We must have patience with prayer because the answers are not always immediate. We must also have a heart of gratitude (thankfulness) when it comes to our walk of faith - especially in our prayer life. 

Until next time, be blessed and be a blessing ~

W

    
    

 

 

God is Good...All the Time!




Dear Readers (or just me someday in the future),

In my last post, I was feeling despair after having lost the job I had maintained for ten years.  But the despair was not so much a woe is me as much as I lamented about not having prepared for the end of employment.  I fully trusted God to open the door to a new opportunity and He did!

I owe much praise to my Father above Who goes before me and also to my earthly father who has some amazing connections in this city.  It was at a function he attended that he struck up a conversation with a local business owner.  She said something that resonated with my dad, who then shared that statement with me: "It's not what you know, but who you know" that started a chain of events that floored me.  Within a few days of that conversation at a unrelated function, I found myself gainfully employed - with benefits!  

Most of you know that I have been struggling keeping my medical care stable with ObamaCare options and have often complained that I really needed to secure a job with benefits in order to drop what I have.  In about a month, I will be able to do just that!  To say I am grateful is an understatement.  Humbled?  Yes.  Relieved?  You bet!  So far, the best outcome is that I am no longer stressed to the point of raising my blood pressure.  My anxiety is also lessened and I am finally excited to come to work and tackle what lays before me.  I no longer had excitement with my former job - mostly due to the stress and anxiety that were covering me daily.

Do I hold animosity towards my old team?  Nope.  It just comes to the fact that we had different views of direction that was being taken and I voiced concerns that they did not share or want to discuss.  That's okay.  I'm better for having had the experiences there and I have skills that I did not have before.  Skills that can still be useful in my current job or beyond.  Nothing to be negative about.  I do still have moments where I feel concern for them and such, but then I let go and take another step forward - no looking back.

Be blessed and be a blessing.  

~ Wendy