Keep Praying

"The devil persists to destroy, to kill, and to steal. Why do we, then, give up?"

IT ISN’T ENOUGH to pray for all men (1 Timothy 2:1). We must understand the process of prayer. There is a way to pray and a way not to pray. Now, God honors sincerity of heart, so even incorrect prayer is heard by Him. But it is the prayer spoken from trust in His willingness to answer that makes a greater difference. To pray effectively, we must know His heart for us, the greatness of His love for all – saints and sinners, to use a churchy phrase – and the magnitude of His mercy. We pray, trusting Him because He is so trustworthy. None answers so fully and well as He does. None answers as lovingly as He does. None answers in such truth and power. He brings His complete power to bear on the behalf of others because of our prayer. He is not half-hearted and is never unwilling. He love, loves, loves people, more than we can ever fathom. The more we know Him, the more we know the height and depth and breadth of His love, and until we know how wide and far-reaching and complete His love is, we do not know Him at all.

Our prayers come from His love in us. 1 Corinthians 13 is a description of the love of God. These are what we are because they are what He is. He is longsuffering and kind. He does not envy nor is He egotistic and puffed up with pride. He never behaves rudely or selfishly. He is not angered easily but is slow to anger (Psalm 103:8). He doesn’t think evil, is not tempted by evil, and never rejoices over evil (James 1:13). The final verse of this passage speaks far larger than the four words it contains. Love “beareth, believeth, hopeth, and endureth” all things (1 Corinthians 13:7).

• Beareth, stego, to hide or conceal the faults of others, to keep off something which threatens
• Believeth, pisteuo, to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith
• Hopeth, elpizo, to wait for salvation with joy and full confidence
• Endureth, hupomeno, to endure, bear bravely and calmly, ill treatments

How much these resemble our Savior, who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one. He carried our sins off and wiped them clean so that death can no longer threaten us. He is who enables us to obtain salvation and all the aspects of salvation – forgiveness, healing, deliverance, and supply. He is the joy and full confidence that what we pray for will be answered. He is how we endure, or bear up bravely and calmly, in the face of persecution. Jesus speaks this to us from the gospels (Matthew 5:11).

To pray effectively, we must renew our mind to think like God thinks, to respond with love and peace, and never be critical, condemning, or offended (Psalm 119:165). The strongholds mentioned in 2 Corinthians 10:4 which we are to pull down are often our thoughts and words about others. It is by continual meditation, muttering, of the Word that we will change and be like Jesus. We have to make the effort, but we do so leaning on the Spirit and holding hands with salvation, with our Savior who forgives us when we mess up.

All of that said, there is a process to prayer and many forms of prayer. But to supplicate for others often requires more knowledge of their suffering than some are willing to give. For those with addiction, there must be persistence in prayer. We cannot turn loose of the mentally and physically addicted. We must keep in contact where we are able and refuse to let them go in the Spirit. They must be at the top of our thinking and continually in our prayers. The devil persists to destroy, to kill, and to steal. Why do we, then, give up? Giving up is as much washing our hands of someone as it is praying one prayer and moving on. There isn’t any ”moving on” from someone’s rescue.

This feels like a heavy weight, but there are those I pray for because I know no one else is praying correctly or effectively. I know God’s heart on this issue because He showed it to me personally, and I’m asking you to dig deep and commit to prayer for the addicted and also the mentally challenged. We are too willing to accept their disease or affliction when there is NO REASON for someone to remain in any form of mental affliction, either by birth, genetically, or by injury or disease. God is eternally good, such a height and beauty of goodness, and working and aiding and healing in ways we have no idea. What seems like His absence is instead His presence, and that is the reason for prayer, to send His presence to those who need Him 24-7 as their life hangs in midair.

When you pray for those with an addiction, pray:

• There is no more craving for the drug.
• No more reliance on the drug.
• No reaction to its being removed from the body and the mind.
• There is peace within, at all hours, but especially at night.
• PERSIST WITH THEM IN PRAYER.

Jesus did not suffer sickness because He had no sin, and yet when He laid down His life, He suffered torment that we cannot imagine. Crucifixion was an especially cruel death which destroyed the body, and there was no easing up from it, but greater and greater agony until, the one crucified longed for death. Jesus died as the sacrifice for man, as the Lamb of God, and not because He had sinned. This is important to know because not until He released His spirit man to the Father’s care, until He actually let Himself go, could He die at all (Luke 23:46). So the agony on the cross was deliberate and on-purpose, not as some distorted demonic need for pain, like the devil would cause in some, but the suffering required to remove all of ours. He did what He did so that we could live free and full, HAPPY, lives. Don’t let anyone convince you there is a difference between happiness and joy. There isn’t. But it is that both come only from the love of God within us and not from anything this world has to offer.

Keep praying and pray well. Keep living and live well. Love well and for those who need the atmosphere, the presence of God in us, BE THE CHURCH, God’s hands extended to the weary and broken, the angry and hateful, the arrogant and full of pride. Many of those Jesus spoke to, as recorded in the gospels and, I’m sure, many others not listed, were all the things God’s love isn’t. But that’s just the thing, as the saying goes. What they aren’t, we are. We must show it.

“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

“We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News. This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.” (Colossians 1:3-6 TLB)

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com