PERSISTENCE IN PRAYER

Persistence in prayer requires boldness. The bible emboldens us to keep asking. For everyone who asks receives. Remember Elijah’s story of persistency? Elijah had prayed for there not to be rain in Israel for three and a half years. After praying to God to send down fire to consume the sacrifice he offered, Elijah told Ahab to go, eat and drink for there was a sound of rushing rain.

At that same time as Ahab left, Prophet Elijah went to Mount Carmel to pray for God to send the rain. He had prayed earnestly for the heavens to be shut for three and a half years and he went to pray again for the heavens to be opened.

Bending down to the ground in a position of prayer, Elijah confidently prayed. But God didn’t send down rain immediately. Elijah kept sending his servant to go and look toward the sea. He went at the first time and saw nothing! Elijah went back to pray again and sent his servant to look again. For the second time the servant went looked and noticed that there was no change. He went back to prayer again and sent his servant to examine the sea but he came back with the same answer.

This did not make Elijah give up. His trust in God was stout. He continued in the same place of prayer. And he did this seven times. The seventh time his servant recognized a small cloud rising from the sea, and he equated it to the size of a man’s fist. This was assurance enough for Elijah that God had finally opened the heavens and that it was going to rain.

Then he sent his servant to go and inform Ahab to get his chariots ready and leave immediately for his palace. Otherwise the rains would stop him. After a short time the sky grew dark, the wind began to blow and a heavy rain began to fall.

How do you explain this? Ordinarily it seems as if it is impossible, but what can’t God do to display his power?

Do you realize that when Elijah was praying with no results showing that he never doubted? He even grew more zealous in prayer. If he quitted at the first three times the nation would not have experienced rain again. He knew that the God that answered him the first time to stop the rains would answer him again and open the heavens. He was tenacious in prayer.

Most of us Christians lose hope in the edge of a breakthrough just when the clouds are forming. Maybe it’s coming in the form of a human’s fist, but that doesn’t mean that you should stop. Keep praying in anticipation. Just like Elijah kept sending his servant to check the progress, you should pray with expectancy in your heart that you are closer than ever before. Every time you go on your knees to petition in your place of prayer know that God has promised to give you your heart’s desire. The preparation of that miracle doesn’t mean denial to it. Just like a fisherman is patient when he goes fishing that he will have a good catch and waits for it, Be also tenacious in prayer.