Scripture
For God alone I patiently wait; He is the One who delivers me.
~Psalm 62:1, NET
Quote
Jesus Christ never rejected a single supplicant who came to Him for mercy: no prayer made in His name will be in vain.
~Bickersteth
Steams in the Desert challenged me this morning. A farmer always evaluates his crop. He check to see if the seeds came up and monitors their health and growth. A sniper always evaluates his target, to see how many bullets hit the bulls eye. A Physician watches to see if the medication prescribed is working effectively. Should we believers who pray daily evaluate our prayers? How many are on target? How many are being answered? It is a sobering thought. My affinity for prayer grows daily but I sure don’t feel like an Elijah who prayed down fire and rain. Last night I shared a message from Psalm 83 which is a prayer for protection. My sermon had three points: [1] Sometimes we get into situations where all we can do is pray. Right now I am praying for our nation and that is all I know to do. The right to elect our president has been taken so I am reduced to prayer. The SBC has gone woke. I went, I voted but now all I can do is pray. It will take God’s intervention to save the United States and the SBC. Our sins and pursuit of the transgender thing is making the French blush. Read this months IMPRIMIS and see what I mean. I have some situations in my life that demand prayer and right now, prayer is the only thing I can do. [2] We must keep on praying. Jesus commanded us to “ask, and keep on asking.” There is no such thing as a wasted prayer. Every prayer is a deposit into our heavenly account. We are not to grow weary, nor are we to faint; we are to continue in prayer with thanksgiving and let our request be made known to God. [3] We are to pray in the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ who prayed redemptively for His enemies. We should pray for all men to come to the knowledge of truth and repent of their sins. While the left plot, we are to pray. While the wokes scheme, we are to intervene.
God answers some prayers before we pray them. He answers some prays immediately but most of the time, the answer to our prayers are delayed. These delayed answers may try our faith but we keep on praying. I have planted my okra twice and it has not come up yet, so I will plant again; eventually, I will have a row of okra. The only way we can relate to God is by faith. Abraham didn’t see all his prayers answered but he did not stop praying. Many of his prayers were answered after he departed this world. So pray without ceasing.
The bottom line is that I am staring at some hopeless situations. My faith is not in money, doctors, or human agency of any sort, my faith is in Christ and Him alone. America needs spiritual renewal desperately: only God can give it. The SBC needs Revival and only God can provide it. Nothing is impossible when you put your trust in God. I don’t trust humankind; I don’t trust politicians or even spiritual leaders; my confidence is in Christ. In one sense, all my eggs are in one basket. If Jesus is not who He claims to be, I am in deep trouble.
In order to get me back online, Catfish had to make some changes. You have to recheck the email box on the blog to have it sent to your email. We have been online all week but many didn’t think so because they were not getting the blog automatically.
Time flies: we are quickly approaching the half way mark of 2021: As Keith says, “Unbelievable.” Have a great day and week. Thanks for reading the blog.