If we want something bad enough, we will put in that extra bit of effort to get what we want. Perhaps it's the newest gadgets on sale, a holiday plan, coffee cravings, career ladder promotion, a business, a house or making a relationship work.
Often, it follows this trend: we pray once or maybe a couple more times. Meanwhile, we may already have a strategy or a decided course of action. We may plan this, try that, if it fails, not to worry because we have yet a backup. And then coming close to the year's end we wonder why we end up feel tired and burnt out!
Of course, planning is a good and wise thing to do. However, through it all we must not forgot God is our refuge and shield, instead of just planning and doing things in our own strength. Don't underestimate the power of your prayers, because God can do abundantly more than we can ask, think or imagine.
In Luke 18, Jesus talks about a woman who received the requested she needed because she persisted and did not give up. In 1 Samuel, Hannah received the child she so badly wanted because she was desperate in her prayers. The measure we persist and desperately pray is also the measure of how we understand of god's greatness. Let us remember, magnify and make big god's works.
Luke 18:1-8
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 what people thought. 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 what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about 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?”
- Jo Voon
Often, it follows this trend: we pray once or maybe a couple more times. Meanwhile, we may already have a strategy or a decided course of action. We may plan this, try that, if it fails, not to worry because we have yet a backup. And then coming close to the year's end we wonder why we end up feel tired and burnt out!
Of course, planning is a good and wise thing to do. However, through it all we must not forgot God is our refuge and shield, instead of just planning and doing things in our own strength. Don't underestimate the power of your prayers, because God can do abundantly more than we can ask, think or imagine.
In Luke 18, Jesus talks about a woman who received the requested she needed because she persisted and did not give up. In 1 Samuel, Hannah received the child she so badly wanted because she was desperate in her prayers. The measure we persist and desperately pray is also the measure of how we understand of god's greatness. Let us remember, magnify and make big god's works.
Luke 18:1-8
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 what people thought. 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 what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about 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?”
- Jo Voon
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