Contending in prayer for God’s promises

Today, I want to explore a theme that struck me recently while reading The Awe of God by John Bevere (chapter 36). This theme is that despite God having made promises, we often still need to contend/ask/plead for those promises to be fulfilled on earth. I’m not trying to answer the question of why God wants us to persist and plead in prayer despite His already stated/revealed promises, but emphasize the spiritual realization that we humans need to pray persistently and meditate on God’s word to bring His promises to pass in our lives. Happy reading!

To kick off, let’s look at the life of Isaac in Genesis 25:21-28. Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, was barren. The Bible says that “Isaac pleaded with the Lord for His wife, and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived“. Pleaded? Why? To plead here could mean that Isaac: prayed hard, begged, asked earnestly, intreated, supplicated (the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly). Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah. It wasn’t until Isaac was 60 years old that Rebekah bore children i.e. twins, Esau and Jacob. It took 20 years of praying earnestly and persistently to God for this prayer to be answered.

Let’s take a step back. God had made a promise to Isaac’s father, Abraham, that: God will make Abraham a great nation, his descendants shall be as numerous as the stars in the sky, kings will come from him, and this everlasting covenant will be between God and Abraham and his descendants in their generations (Genesis 12:1-2; Genesis 15:5, Genesis 17:1-7). In simple terms, God promised that Abraham will have children and his children will have many children unto many generations to come. If there was one promise that God was certainly going to fulfil in Isaac’s life, it was this one i.e. that Abraham would have many descendants, implying that Isaac would definitely also have children. God affirmed this covenant so many times in the life of Abraham, that He certainly had to bring it to pass. Coincidentally, Abraham also had to wait for 25 years to see this promise fulfilled in his life (He was 75 years old when God first made the promise to him in Genesis 12:1-2, but it wasn’t until he was 100 years old that Sarah, his wife, bore a son, Isaac.) 25 years of praying and waiting faithfully that the Bible says: “Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him righteous because of his faith”! During that time, despite God re-affirming His covenant with Abraham multiple times, Abraham still asked God specifically for a child in Genesis 15:1-6.

If there was one promise that God was certainly going to fulfil in Isaac’s life, it was this one i.e. that Abraham would have many descendants, implying that Isaac would definitely have children.

Key takeaways

1. That God has made a promise does not automatically bring it to pass on earth. We humans have a role to play. That God had made a promise did not automatically bring this to pass in Isaac’s life; he still had to plead with God (for 20 years) for his wife to bear a child.
   
   Psalms 119:89 tells us that “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven (standing firm, unchangeable)”. Isaiah 55:11 tells us that “God’s word goes forth from His mouth. It shall not return to Him void, but it shall accomplish what He pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing for which He sent it.” Now, God’s word has gone out in heaven, and we on earth have access to God’s words in the Bible or through spiritual revelation. In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus teaches us that we should pray for God’s will to be done on earth, even as it is in heaven. Therefore, we humans have a role to play in bringing to pass God’s will on earth, by studying and speaking/praying God’s words persistently to our situations.
   
   Let me use another example of where God had made a promise but man still needed to pray to bring it to pass. In Jeremiah 29:10-14, we learn a few things: 1) God prophesied that the Israelites would go into captivity for 70 years. After the time is fulfilled, God promised to visit the Israelites to restore them to their land in Israel. 2) God also makes it known that He has wonderful thoughts towards Israel about their future. 3) But to restore them, the Israelites MUST be seeking and praying to God. Specifically, the text says “Then (in those days, at that time) you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity”.
   
   Basically, it was critical that at the appointed time, the people are found praying and seeking God with all their heart to bring His promises to pass. They must not give up. Their faith in God’s ability to rescue them is strengthened over time. Isaiah 62:6-7 reiterates the point of continuous and persistent prayer for the things we desire, even when we’re not seeing immediate results. It says: “O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. Give the Lord no rest until He completes His work, until He makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.” Again, though the Israelites were still in captivity, Isaiah is telling us here that there were people actively praying day and night for the freedom and restoration of the people of Israel to their land. (Study Mark 6:45-52; and my posts on 1: God moves, as we move; and 2) Fear, Faith and God’s Sudden Moves).
   
   There is an eternal / salvation related reason why we must be found praying at the appointed time. Jesus confirms this in Luke 12:35-40 where He tells us that because His second coming will happen at an hour we do not expect, we must today master the act of praying continuously and waiting continuously / faithfully on God – no matter how long it takes! This is the glue that connects all our trials and life’s waitings. ”Let your waist be girded and (keep) your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
   
   Daniel was also fasting and praying for the release of the Israelites but what he didn’t know was that this was also a spiritual battle, as the Prince of Persia was also fighting to prevent the Israelites’ release. Daniel 10:12-14 tells us that from the day that Daniel started to pray, humbling himself before God, his request was heard in heaven. But time still had to pass before his prayer was answered. The devil had to be defeated. As far as Daniel was concerned, persistent prayer, fasting, pleading, supplication to God, were his only tools. We can also take confidence in Daniel’s experience, that from the first day we start praying to God, our prayers are heard; but when God answers is for God to decide.
   
   
2. Jesus pleaded with God in prayer. Hebrews 5:7 tells us that: “In the days of His flesh [Jesus] offered up definite, special petitions [for that which He not only wanted, but needed] and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him who was [always] able to save Him [out] from death, and He was heard because of His reverence toward God [His godly fear, His piety, in that He shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father].” If Jesus pleaded with the Father, how much more so do we also have to follow in His footsteps by practicing this in our lives today?
   
   James 5:16 tells us that: “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].”
   
   Philipians 4:6-7 tells us that: “Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
   
   Matthew 7:7-8: “Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened.” Asking in prayer is the starting point but persistence is so vital. After you’ve asked, don’t just sit idle, but expectantly go out there seeking for the answer to your prayer. Try what you can to bring it to pass i.e. the knocking. At the right time, God will open the door with an answer to your prayer, if it’s His will for your life. Study this post – What is faith?
   
   In Luke 18:1, “Jesus told His disciples a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up).”
   
   1 John 5:14: “This is the [remarkable degree of] confidence which we [as believers are entitled to] have before Him: that if we ask anything according to His will, [that is, consistent with His plan and purpose] He hears us. And if we know [for a fact, as indeed we do] that He hears and listens to us in whatever we ask, we [also] know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted to us] the requests which we have asked from Him.” To know God’s will, we must study His word and pray for the Holy Spirit to reaveal to us the will and thoughts concerning us that are Hidden in the Father, as only the Holy Spirit knows the thougths of the father (1 Cor 2:11). Abraham, Isaac, and Hannah’s prayers for a child, Elijah’s prayer for rain, Jesus prayers etc. – their desires were all in accordance with God’s will.

Asking in prayer is the starting point but persistence is so vital. After you’ve asked, don’t just sit idle, but expectantly go out there seeking for the answer to your prayer. Try what you can to bring it to pass i.e. the knocking. At the right time, God will open the door with an answer to your prayer, if it’s His will for your life.

Conclusions

I leave you with three stories for you to study in your spare time:

• The first are the stories that Jesus told to His disciples to emphasize the need for us to always pray (boldly) and never give up. One is the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8. “…when the Son of Man comes, will He find [persistence in] faith on the earth?” The second is in Luke 11:5-8 about the friend who comes asking for bread at midnight. Christ said: “I tell you, although he will not get up to supply him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shameless persistence and insistence (and boldness) he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”

• The second story is the one that James used to emphasize his point about the need for earnest prayers. He referenced Elijah’s prayer for a drought and for rain in 1 Kings 17:1 and 1 Kings 18:42-45.

• Finally, in Isaiah 59, we read the story of a people facing the consequences of their sins whereby God seemed to be far away. God looked upon this situation and saw that there was no-one interceding/praying, so God had to step in Himself to address the situation. But the chapter wraps up with a perpetual covenant instructing us that God’s words should never depart from our mouth: “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.” Isaiah 59:15, 16, 21

By now, you should have gotten the point: With a humble, expectant and thankful heart, pray ceaselessly, earnestly and persistently. Make your specific requests known to God. Day and night, pray! God’s promises are spirit and life; we must pray them, speak them (His words, not just any set of words) out loud towards our situations (NB: this is what it means to meditate on the word). Study His word to know His promises and will. Pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the things that are hidden in the Father.

Sometimes we are fighting spiritual battles or generational curses we know nothing about. Sometimes, God is doing a work behind the scenes that we are unable to decipher. Sometimes we are asking amiss for the wrong things that don’t align with God’s will, selfish, or will be damaging to us in future. Sometimes we may be paying the price for a sin. Sometimes, time just needs to pass, as God may have specified a time for our prayer to be answered. Sometimes we are not yet ready to fully receive the things we are asking for. Whatever the case, just continue praying and seeking God diligently! God bless you.