Can you believe, the year just started and already we are halfway through February.
Time really does fly and by the time we check, we will be celebrating Christmas and wishing each other a Happy New Year, again.
For about three years now, I have stopped doing New Year's resolutions and instead replaced it with a Gratitude List. Every month I write down daily things that I give God thanks for, as simple as waking up, to the big achievements. I started this because I realised that I was a complainer and did not want to continue that trajectory in my life.
Each year I look back at the list and give God thanks for the year gone. I invite you all to do the same as life can just pass by without us ever remembering the accomplishments, small mercies, obstacles, and those things we thought impossible, which we eventually overcame.
One tradition I have kept however, is seeking the Lord regarding my year ahead, to direct my focus on what is important. Yes, I have goals I want to achieve, and yes, I keep dreaming. But above all I know God knows my future, and I want to know from Him what posture I should take in the year ahead.
Keep Pressing
In the year past many of us would have started new journeys, new careers, new academic pursuits. While many of us in reflection would realise, we are still searching, still in the process of accomplishing some goals, still trying to sort ourselves out. I currently fall in the latter category and for a while felt despondent.
God however, in the book of Luke chapter 18 verses 1 - 8, sought to encourage me as I sought Him for the year to come.
“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’“For some time, he refused. But finally, he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 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? 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?”
This passage of scripture was a great reminder and inspiration for me, and I am hoping it will be the same for you who are reading. It came at a period, where I was thinking about all the things I have been praying about (some for years) yet had not seen any change.
I was in a mode of questioning, ‘What’s the point?
Why continue to pray about this thing when nothing seems to be changing?’
Longsuffering God
The woman who kept going to the judge must have known that he was “neither God fearing nor cared what people thought.’ Yet she kept going back. The judge described her actions as ‘bothering’ and considered her persistence dangerous and out of fear of being attacked - granted her justice.
Oh, how righteously different is our God!
It is so comforting to know that the God we pray to, the God we have communion with, the God that shares our burdens is faithful.
The book of Numbers chapter 14 verse 18 says, “The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.”
Our God, unlike this judge, is not bothered by our persistence in prayer, he is not fearful of our constant surrender and request in His presence. On the contrary, He desires it. He wants to constantly hear from us and to daily meet with us and commune with us in our times of prayer.
He says, “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? 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?”
Faint Not!
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
As I have been encouraged, I encourage you, do not stop praying. Stay at His feet, continue to visit your secret place and continue to make your request known unto God. He has instructed that if we ask, we shall receive, if we knock, the door will be open, if we seek, we will find.
And we know that the Lord is not slack on his promises, and so we can approach His throne with confidence knowing that He hears and understands every care, every weight, every anxiety, and He will not turn His face from us.
“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
Luke 18:1
My prayer for the people of God in this season is for strength. Strength to continue in prayer regardless of not yet seeing them fulfilled and for inner renewal; to continue daily to seek His face and be transformed as we meet with our Creator.
Faint not, keep praying.