BIBLE PASSAGE:
Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die,
for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.
(Revelation 3:2)
MEDITATION:
Satan opposes the prayers of those who are saved.
One of his main objectives in opposing the work of God
is to discourage (and hopefully stop) Christians from praying.
Although some Christians may not be aware of it,
Satan knows that prayer is the venue for communicating
with God and appropriating His rich blessings.
Without the blessings from God, we can become exhausted spiritually
and weakened in our capability of coping with the difficulties of life.
The closer we are to our Lord’s second coming, the greater
pressure we will experience from Satan to discourage praying.
Many Christians already forget to pray
when they arise in the mornings.
It doesn’t take long to pray the Lord’s prayer
and ask God for His help throughout the day.
We need His help in resisting temptations, and in
coping with the challenges we will face during the day.
Satan knows of our need to depend on God, so he cleverly
crafts his schemes to encourage us to become independent.
It delights him to see us become powerless when we are without God.
Satan also opposes “praying through” (which is
praying faithfully for something until we receive an answer).
The parable of the persistent widow teaches us the need
to “pray through” until we receive answers to our prayers.
We see the purpose of this parable from Jesus.
“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show
them that they should always pray and not give up.”
(Luke 18:1)
This parable teaches that we should keep on asking God
for the thing we need until we receive an answer from Him.
The parable is simple:
A widow woman came and asked
a certain judge to avenge her against an enemy.
The judge did nothing for a while.
But he finally gave her what she wanted because
he was tired of being bothered by her persistence.
The parable ends by reminding us of God’s
justice for those who belong to Him and pray faithfully.
“And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones,
who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting
them off?” (Luke 18:7)
But the very last verse of the parable says,
“I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.
However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith
on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)
This probably doesn’t mean
there won’t be any faith when Christ comes;
but more than likely it means that most Christians
will give up easily when they are praying for some need.
Their patience will wear thin if they do not receive
an answer to their prayer within what they consider
a reasonable amount of time (forgetting that God’s
timetable is far different (and better) than theirs).
“Praying through” in faith will be greatly lessened in the last
days, because Satan will intensify his pressure against all praying.
Satan seeks to prolong his evil life on this earth
by opposing persistent prayer in the last days!
He does this to weaken the churches and cause
a delay in the full number of the elect being saved.
Satan hinders our prayers, and stops many of us
from ‘praying through’ by convincing us that,
prayer isn’t that important.
He whispers to us,
“Even though a pastor tells you to pray, pray, pray, you are
wasting your time; your prayers don’t really do anything.”
Have you ever felt like that?
Have you ever thought that praying doesn’t really
do anything; that it is only a waste of your time?
When you have a thought like that, you know it wasn’t
from God, so it has to be Satan who has given you that idea.
Satan will use all sorts of tricks to discourage (and stop)
us from praying until we receive an answer from God,
Satan delights in deceiving us into letting our prayers slide.
He works hard (and cleverly) to stop us from
praying before we have received an answer from God!
The apostle Paul warns us of Satan’s influence on us.
“in order that Satan might not outwit us.
For we are not unaware of his schemes.” (2 Corinthians 2:11)
Satan will certainly “get an advantage” over us unless we
are very careful not to give up when we are praying for a need.
The Apostle James said,
“You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but
you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.
You do not have because you do not ask God.” (James 4:2)
Quite often, we still “have not” because
the Devil tricked us with one of his devices.
He caused us to feel hopeless or depressed;
he tempted us with discouragement until our prayer life
has become weakened, and in some cases stopped completely.
We need to remember that prayer is the main thing
we do to win the battle with Satan (prayer IS the battle).
In the tenth chapter of Daniel we read that Daniel’s prayer
was heard by God the very first time he prayed. (Daniel 10:12)
However, the answer did not come for “twenty-one days”
because a demon from Satan opposed the answer. (Daniel 10:13)
We can be grateful that Daniel did not let the Devil
stop him from praying until he got what he asked for from God!
ACTION:
Do you actively pray continually?
Have you developed a lackadaisical attitude toward prayer?
Do you need to reignite your own prayer life?
Never forget that prayer is a necessity in the life of Christians.
Prayer is of great benefit to us, and to others as well.
Your prayer could be the catalyst
that results in the salvation of someone else.
Think about – someone’s eternity could be changed from pain
and agony to eternal bliss because you prayed without giving up.
Have you given up on praying for someone to be saved?
Maybe you have a family member who has made bad choices
and has stopped communicating with you for some reason.
They cannot stop you from communicating with the Lord.
It is your responsibility to continue praying for them
even though he or she has hurt you deeply and the chance
of them changing their life seems completely hopeless.
You can either say to the Lord,
“I gave up on them because they were not going to change”,
or you can say,
“Lord, I continue to pray for them because I have a
genuine faith that You can change them. You can make
possible anything that seems impossible. I trust You completely”.
Pray,
“Heavenly Father, impress on me the importance of
faithful and continual prayer. I have read Your Word
and am reminded that I cannot expect answers to prayers
whenever I stop praying. Even though I might expect an
answer within a certain time-frame, give me the patience
and understanding I need for waiting and trusting You
to answer my prayers on Your schedule. Help me to realize
that You will answer my prayers at the best time for me and
for others. Forgive me if my prayer life is not as active as it
should be, and for any prayers that I have stopped praying
because I gave up on them being answered. Teach me the
value of praying ‘big’ prayers because You are a ‘big’ God
who can answer seemingly impossible prayers!”
BREAD FOR BELIEVERS 
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