In Prayer

1 Kings 17:¹ “Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, “As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!”

Jesus is not just pleading for mercy when it comes to us, Jesus is pleading for justice. It is unjust to punish the same sin twice; Jesus already received the full punishment for our sin on the cross of cavalry. Jesus is saying to God, ‘You have to be just with them; look at Me I died for them. I paid the price! They deserve to die but look at My death and give them life!’ He is faithful and just! We are forgiven because of His mercy, and we are cleansed because of His justice. You are forgiven because of His mercy, and you are cleansed because of His justice. 1 Jn.1:⁹ “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” (emphasis added). And this is Righteousness, the first of the two things that must be in place for us to take bold steps towards God. The second thing that must be in place is single-mindedness – single-mindedness in prayer and in obedience.

Single-Mindedness In Prayer: In Genesis 32, Jacob sent his children and his wives ahead and he stayed with God single-minded in prayer, Jacob wrestled with God. Gen.32:²⁶ “Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” In other words, Jacob was saying to God, ‘this is where my life is now, but this is where my life needs to be. I need a blessing that would take me from where I am to where I ought to be.’ Jacob was so single-minded that he refused to let go until God blessed him. Are you single-minded in your prayers? Do you start praying and then become double-minded? If you want to take bold steps towards God, you have to be single-minded because a double-minded person, the scripture says, is unstable in all his ways and cannot get anything from God (James 1:8).

When you start praying and trusting God for something, stay there. Refuse to let Him  go until God blesses you – single-mindedness. Someone said, ‘I feel like prayer is the difference between the best you can do, and the best God can do.’ When you consider the best you can do, and it is not enough. Go and face God in singleness of mind and build that bridge to the best that God can do for you. There is an amazing story in Joshua 10:12-14 (please read). Joshua did not pray silently, he prayed in front of a whole nation. He put his reputation and his leadership on the line. What if the sun did not stand still like Joshua prayed? what would happen to Joshua’s reputation? When you are single-minded, you do not care about your reputation, and you do not care about how you look in front of people. When you want something from God and you are single-minded, it does not matter what anyone says. Being single-minded in prayer is so powerful. Elijah stood before Ahab and said, ‘before the Lord whom I stand, there shall be no rain in this land except at my word’. And there was no rain until Elijah called back the rain.

Prayer:  Father, please give me singleness of mind in prayer, to take the steps that will shock  my generation, in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen!