WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” — Genesis 32:26
Never underestimate the power of prayer. When you are praying according to God’s will, your prayer is unstoppable. And how do we know what God’s will is? By careful study of Scripture.
Jesus made this promise: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).
We gravitate immediately toward the latter part of that verse: Ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. We love that, as though God were some sort of genie. But that isn’t the case. We tend to forget about the first part of this verse: If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you . . . If we are walking in fellowship with God and studying the Word of God, then we will start praying according to the will of God. And then we will start seeing our prayers answered.
First John 5:14-15 says, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
Therefore, we should never give up or back down. We need to keep praying. That is why Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). In the original language there is an ascending intensity to the terms. It is like starting off with some politeness. Then you get more aggressive. And then you aren’t letting go, like Jacob, who wrestled with the Lord and refused to let go until He blessed him.
Don’t give up.
Used by permission from Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie, PO Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514.
