Never Stop

Romans 8:²⁶ “A similar thing happens when we pray. We are weak and do not know how to pray, so the Spirit steps in and articulates prayers for us with groaning too profound for words.” (Voice)

We began to explore the mysteries of prayer yesterday and the first is, Mysteriously It Seems That God Will Not Act Unless We Pray. How can the creator of the Heavens and the earth be limited to the prayers of a mortal man? This is truly mysterious! James 4:² “You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.” Knowing that God is waiting on our prayer should fire us up to pray.

Secondly, mysteriously even if God knows everything, He Still Wants Us To Ask About What He Already Knows. Why would we tell God what He already knows? God already knows everything. Something is about to happen, God already knows but He wakes me up at three o’clock in the morning and says, ‘Pray, so that xyz thing will not happen.’ ‘Lord, You already know this thing and you have the power to stop it. Why disturb me from sleeping? Let me sleep and You do what You have to do.’ But He will not let me sleep, ‘You need to pray for person A and pray for person B.’ ‘If You already know and You are God, why do I need to pray?’ Mysterious mystery of prayer! But by God’s grace, we have learnt to just pray. Sometimes, while I am driving, God flashes the image of someone before me and says, ‘Pray for this person.’ I just pray.

However, the unschooled you will say, why do You, God need me to pray for You to do what You want to do? You already want to do it, so why do You need me to pray? It is mysterious! When we get to heaven, I will ask, but until then I will pray. Matt.6:⁸ “Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” Again, the question is, if You already know what I need before I ask then why do I need to pray? Luke 11:^11-13 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” It seems God wants us to come to present the things He already knows before He does them. What a mystery!

Thirdly, mysteriously God wants us to keep asking about The Same Thing Even Though We Have Already Asked Him Before. That can be mysteriously annoying sometimes if you are not schooled! Why would God have us keep asking about the same thing even though we have asked before? Why does He want us to keep asking? When we have our God Will Do It Again seasons, let’s say you have not even prayed about anything until the vigils. By the third day of the vigil, should God not have heard everything you have been saying? If He does not know our problem by the first day, He must know by the third day. So, why can’t we just ask once and let everybody be fine? 1 Thess. 5:¹⁷ “Never stop praying”. Praying here means asking; never stop asking!

Prayer: Holy Spirit, empower me to pray without ceasing, in Jesus Name. Amen!