Years ago in Australia we had ad for some paint and the slogan was, ‘keep on keeping on’ I have to say at this point, advertising fails on me. I remember the slogan but never remember the product. I do know it’s much the same in the Christian life we need to keep on, keeping on.
Sometimes people might ask us to pray for them because they don’t think God will listen to them. I had a friend say to me once, ‘I don’t pray. God wouldn’t listen.’
Of course I could have replied ‘How much notice did you ever take of God?’ I didn’t. I did promise to pray for her. My prayers were not just for her in the situation she was in, but that she might come into a relationship with God herself.
Then there are those who don’t have a relationship with God yet they sometimes seem to have the mistaken view God is, as a friend of said in his sermon, like a ‘divine magician.’ Ask and you get what you want – when you want it..
Sometimes people can breed that attitude into their children too, by giving into them and always letting them get what they want. That way a child never learns to deal with disappointment in life. Any wonder then, they grow up to be adults who demand and expect everything instantly? It’s no different with prayer.
I’ve heard people say they prayed and God didn’t answer. It never seems to occur to them that they actually need a relationship with God before they can come to Him and expect prayers to be answered. Or it might be that the answer is no, or that they might have to wait to see the answer as we did when selling our house. A person might at times have to persist for years in prayer. Sometimes we just have to keep on, keeping on.
Please visit these related blogs
7 Helpful Prayers for Our Children
Praying Over Tasks for the Day