2-17-2024
Our generation desperately needs to rediscover the difference between praying for and praying through. There are certainly circumstances where praying for something will get the job done. Short prayers before meals are great because, quite frankly, I believe in eating food while it’s still hot. But there are also situations where you need to get alone with God and refuse to let go until He answers.
Maybe you’ve never heard the term, “praying through”. Praying through requires consistency. It’s circling Jericho so many times it makes you dizzy. Like the story Jesus told about the persistent widow who drove the judge crazy with her relentless requests, praying through won’t take no for an answer. Far too many times we are guilty of giving up in prayer just when the wall is about to fall. We are always only one prayer away from a miracle.
Praying through also involves intensity. It involves gut-wrenching groans and heartbreaking tears. It’s the kind of prayer Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. Praying through doesn’t just bend God’s ear; it touches the heart of your heavenly Father.
Years ago, at the president’s Easter prayer breakfast at the White House, several hundred religious leaders from across the country gathered. Before breakfast, a seventy-six-year-old African-American preacher who served alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement said a prayer. While he prayed softly, his faith was loud and clear. He prayed with such a familiarity with the Father that it was convicting. It’s like his words were deep-fried in the faithfulness of God. After he said amen, one of the other pastors said to his friend, “I feel like I’ve never prayed before.” It was clear that this seventy-six-year-old pastor had an intimate relationship with God.
Today I want to invite you to that kind of intimacy with God through prayer. And let me encourage you to be a person who prays through. As the lyrics to Matthew West’s song say:
Don’t stop praying
Don’t stop calling on Jesus name
Keep on pounding on heaven’s door
Let your knees wear out the floor
Don’t stop believing
‘Cause mountains move with just a little faith
And your Father’s heard every single word you’re saying
So, don’t stop praying
There are higher heights and deeper depths in prayer, and God wants to take you there. It will involve more sacrifice, but if you are willing to go there, you’ll realize that you didn’t sacrifice anything at all. It will involve more risk, but if you are willing to go there, you’ll realize that you didn’t risk anything at all.
And just so you know……I’m praying for you!!!
Oh…….and here’s a link to Matthew West’s song, “Don’t Stop Praying”.