“Continue instant in prayer… Be faithful in prayer… Be persistent in prayer… Be devoted to prayer” (Rom 12:12)
This is God’s command: we should pray on and on until the answer comes. In Greek, this word means to be earnest towards a thing, to persevere, to be constantly diligent, to give yourself closely to a person as a servant, to wait continually upon, to be strong, patient and to endure to the end. God’s command is to pray and worship until you meet with Him. This is a spiritual attitude of continuous waiting on God to come and talk to you. It is a spiritual exercise that God rewards with His presence! But most Christians get tired of praying. The give up on prayer or to stop worshipping is a sin.
An old saint (Thomas Brooks) said that when praying, we should be like hunting dogs. For example: There is a type of dog called the dachshund. He is a small but very active hunting dog. He chases small animals like rabbits or squirrels. He is very alert and watchful. When he hears any movement he will bark loudly alerting his owner. He is very faithful to his master. His two front legs are like shovels. He digs the ground to get his prey. He was born to hunt. He is very bold chasing animals bigger than his size. He is very stubborn too. This dog does not rest until he gets what he wants.
The Bible says that we should ‘chase’ God in prayer like this dachshund dog chases the rabbit. We should not rest until we have an answer from God. That answer can be ‘yes, no or wait’. But an answer is an answer. We live by the Word of God. We are not ‘picky’ with what God offers to us. Even if God says ‘no’ to our request, we live by that answer. Everything God gives is a gift filled with grace. Something good comes out of it. The worst thing we can do is to stop ‘chasing’ God. For example, you arrive before the Throne of the King of kings and draw back in fear or doubt. From my experience, there are many believers who have this attitude: they draw back just before the finishing line. It is a slave mentality: you work hard and then, you abandon your harvest. The devil whispers to you that they are not worthy to have an audience with the King. Faith 99% and doubt 1% is still counted as doubt. God says that he will not take pleasure if we draw back from an encounter with Him. “But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him” (Heb 10:38). Faith is life! Doubt is defeat! Fear is failure!
Dear child of God, I encourage you to come back to the place of prayer that you have abandoned in the past! Come back, son! Come back, daughter! Do not keep the King waiting… Come back to the holy place of prayer! I am waiting for you there… Pray until you meet with God!
(In the picture a small but very bold dachshund dog fighting for his ball with a much bigger dog)
Green Pastures 