By Tanya Jolliffe
As the world gets darker and up seems down and wrong seems right, we continue to face trials and hardships that can cause us to lose hope. The prodigal child that still hasn’t come home. The sick relatives that don’t seem to get better. The marriage that still needs healing. The addiction that still has a grip. Food and gas prices continue to rise, making it harder and harder to make ends meet. Our prayer lists get longer and longer. We pray but sometimes wonder if God hears, or if he does, when will he do something about all that is going wrong?
I was having one of those mornings when I found myself tired of asking God for the same things and wondering what good I was doing. Just then, a song came on the radio, and the words jumped out at me like God was answering the questions in my heart.
“What’s your impossible? Your ‘I need a miracle.’ What’s got you barely hanging by a single thread? What looks so hopeless now? What weighs down your heart with doubt? You beg for a breakthrough but no sign of breakthrough yet. When you’ve cried and you’ve cried ’til your tears run dry, the answer won’t come, and you don’t know why, and you wonder if you can bow your head even one more time. DON’T STOP PRAYING!”
The words from this Matthew West song caused scriptures to come alive within me.
“For we live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV).
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all” (Psalm 34:17-19 NIV).
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8 NIV).
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Colossians 1:13 NIV).
“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7 NIV).
“Trust in him at all times, you people pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:8 NIV).
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV).
“Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light” (Micah 7:8 NIV).
“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long” (Psalm 25:4-5 NIV).
“No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me, declares the Lord” (Isaiah 54:17 NIV).
As the words of the Matthew West song continue, “He is close to the brokenhearted, saves those who are crushed in spirit, the Alpha and Omega know how your story ends. DON’T STOP PRAYING. Don’t stop calling on Jesus’ name. Keep on pounding on heaven’s door. Let your knees wear out the floor. Don’t stop believing ’cause mountains move with just a little faith, and your Father’s heard every single word you’re saying, so DON’T STOP PRAYING.”
Don’t stop praying, and don’t stop believing that God has a plan and a purpose for all that doesn’t make sense. When we stop believing God, we are believing the enemy and calling God and his word a lie. Scripture makes it clear that God and his word cannot lie.
“God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill” (Numbers 23:19 NIV)?
“He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind” (1 Samuel 15:29 NIV).
“God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged” (Hebrews 6:18 NIV).
So, dear sister, you hold on. You keep praying. You keep believing in the very depth of your soul, which is your mind, will, and emotions, that GOD HAS YOU in the palm of his hand. He has a plan and a purpose for all you are going through, and he IS going to bring you through it so you can use your story for his glory to bring others to him. Trust him, and DON’T STOP PRAYING!
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