Don’t Stop Praying

 

God is still a miracle worker. God still answers the prayers of his people.

I felt I had to sit down and write about the importance of being persistent in prayer in light of some recent happenings.

The past four years have been very difficult for us for many reasons. We have struggled through financial hardship, challenging decisions that needed to be made and a myriad of life’s trials.

Throughout this time, we have continually brought our requests to the Lord, we have pounded the very gates of Heaven, looking for answers, hoping for relief, praying for guidance.

And yet, God was silent. Sometimes it felt as if we were speaking into the air. We were praying expectantly, sincerely, with what we were sure were pure motives and yet God remained silent. The expected relief never came. We wanted a sign. Any sign. A glimmer of hope. Just a glow from a flickering candle, piercing through the darkness, letting us know our prayers were being heard and considered.

And yet, instead of answers, instead of clear leading, we were met with silence.

Don’t get me wrong, God still provided in so many ways but the answers to the big questions remained unanswered.

As a busy wife, mother and grandmother, who wears so many hats and many of them at once, I often crave silence. I love to be alone in my study, pouring over a challenging passage of scripture. I love to sit in silence on the rooftop, staring into the changing colours of the sunset. Yes, I love my quiet, but one of the worst feelings is when the silence comes from God himself.

So, what do we do when we pray to God, especially when we are in desperate need of answers, and we are met with silence?

Do we come to the conclusion that God no longer cares for us? Do we begin to believe that he’s not even listening?

There was a Psalmist in the Bible who knew what it was like to cry out to God and be greeted with silence. And yet, we see him do something that we, as believers, often fail to do.

Psalm 42:11 KJV - Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

From this Psalm, we learn some important ways to approach God when we feel he is silent.

Did you notice I said we “feel” he is silent? Because often the silence we think surrounds us is only imagined. Sometimes we are guilty of filling our lives with so much noise that we can’t even hear his voice because God often speaks in whispers to our hearts.

Like Elijah, the great prophet of old, we have to listen for that still, small voice. (1 Kings 19:11,12) God’s silence did not mean his absence. He was still there. And he was still speaking.

But, back to our Psalm.

If you take the time to read through the whole of Psalm 42, you’ll find the Psalmist speaks about his soul longing after God. He mentions thirsting after God and yet in the next verse we see his tears. It seems that one minute he’s happy and praising God and the next he is downcast and miserable.

Sounds a lot like me some days. Up and down like a yo-yo. It’s not a new thing this mixture of emotions. People aren’t afraid to speak up about it nowadays, and neither was this Psalmist from years gone by.

But what I love about this particular Psalm is that he just kept seeking.

What is your natural reaction when someone gives you the cold shoulder or ghosts you? It’s to draw away. And yet, the writer of this Psalm did just the opposite. He felt God was silent and yet it didn’t stop him from calling on God. He didn’t give up. He kept in conversation with God. He kept the communication lines open, just in case the call came through!

Another thing he did was he remembered what God had done for him in the past. He remembered praising God in the house of the Lord (vs 4).

And lastly, he placed his hope and trust in God and chose to praise him. He didn’t place his hope in his circumstances, as they were dismal, he placed his hope in God.

Psalm 42:11 KJV - Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

You see in this verse the Psalmist having a little conversation with himself. I talk to myself very regularly and so I find it very relatable to see this particular writer asking himself these sad questions aloud and then cheering himself up by reminding himself to hope in God. And that’s not all he did, he made a determination to praise God. He made a choice to rise above his circumstances and choose joy.

Sometimes you just need to have a little conversation with yourself and rebuke yourself for your unbelief or doubt or fear.

So, what can we learn from this Psalm when we feel God is silent?

We learn to:

1.        Keep on seeking God

2.        Remember what God has done in the past

3.        Place your hope in God

4.        Praise God no matter what

In a nutshell, we keep praying! We keep seeking! We keep praising! We keep hoping!

What we know of God’s character, we hold tight to. We let that anchor us until we hear from him again.

God will not remain silent forever.

The Jews experienced 400 years of silence in which the voice of God was not heard. But he was not absent. And the silence ended with the coming of John the Baptist, a pivotal point in history announcing the coming Messiah, Christ.

Now back to my mention of answered prayers. In recent days, God has finally begun to answer some of our prayers and a whole lot more of my own personal prayers. Prayers I thought were going unheard. Prayers I almost gave up praying.

The Bible reminds us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17), this is a command, it’s not optional. And so, despite the desire to give up, in obedience to God, we continue calling out to him, daily, hourly.

My despair at not getting answers in my time has resulted in answers I didn’t know were possible. And they were in God’s perfect timing. Not my flawed sense of time and action.

Having walked with the Lord for many years, although I am far from being perfect and never will be, and although I have failed in putting him first so many times, I have come to know the character of God in a deeper way and with more understanding as I grow in my relationship with him. And although I don’t always understand his silence, I can always trust his character. He has a good track record. He has proven over and over to be a faithful, loving God.

And although I don’t always sense his presence when I can’t hear his voice, I know that his silence doesn’t mean his absence. He is always with me, and he is always working. Some of his best work is done in the dark.

Keep on bringing your requests before God. Don’t stop praying. Don’t stop until the victory comes and peace washes over your soul.

Don’t give up. God will come through. Just like he always has.

If he has done it before, he can do it again.  

Make a choice to keep coming before the Lord and don’t be afraid to bring the same requests to him until you hear his voice, and he gives his answer.

As King David determined in his heart, so should we.

Psalm 55:16-17 KJV - As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.

 

DON’T STOP PRAYING!