LET US PRAY (PART 3)
LET US PRAY (PART 3)
Many years ago as a matured, 40- something year old, post-graduate student at University College, London, I knew the efficacy of prayer. I had left Nigeria just for the period of my studies and had left my catering business in the hands of a manager. Shortly after I arrived in the UK and started classes it became clear that studying and living in the city of London was an expensive feat. My family had sponsored my tuition and other expenses. But my accommodation and personal things like entertainment had to be sorted out by myself. At the time, I had contracts running with some corporate clients. But about four months into my MA Linguistics programme, business began to slow down and catering requests dwindled. Knowing that this was my source of livelihood as long as I remained in the UK, I knew that I had to do something quickly.
I began to pray.
I made a point of getting up every night by midnight and to pray for my catering business to pick up. I remember one day my classmates and I had all gone to the pub and we came back so late, it was past midnight. I still knelt down by my bedside and prayed. I did not give up. Then one night, while praying, I got an email. And I thought to myself, who is mailing me at this hour? I took a peek and saw that the mail was from a client. I was shocked! But I just carried on with my prayers. In the morning I messaged my client to confirm that the catering request was from them and they said it was. I was wooowed!! And so the catering requests began to pick up again and I was back in business all because I had kept praying and did not give up.
Last week while fretting about the state of affairs in the world in general and particularly in Nigeria, The Holy Spirit brought this praying experience to mind as a reminder that persistence in the place of prayer will yield positive results. Even Jesus encourages us to pray. See what He told His disciples in the parable of “The Persistent Widow”:
One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’” Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” Luke 18: 1- 8 NLT
Our act of crying out to God night and day is an act of faith and it is faith that pleases God. “No one can please God without faith, for whoever comes to God must have faith that God exists and rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 Good News Translation. It is our faith that will move God to act quickly on our behalf. Also God does not want us to give up when it seems to us that He is not answering our prayers. He expects us to keep pressing on in the place of prayer. “Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.
Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.” Isaiah 62: 6-7 NLT God wants us to pray until He does what He promised.
I have come to encourage us today that God answers prayers and especially persistent prayers. Please whatever it is that we are asking and believing God for at this time, let us not give up. The vision is for an appointed time. It will speak. It will not lie. To encourage us further please read the following articles from our blog https://theplaceofpraise.com/let-us-pray/ published on May 10,2016 and https://theplaceofpraise.com/let-us-pray-part-2/ published on May 17, 2016 and published on May 17, 2016.
PLEASE DO NOT LOSE HOPE AND DO NOT GIVE UP.
LET US KEEP PRAYING. GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS.
OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS©