30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 11 5-13 Persistent prayer Persistent prayer 10
📖 Luke 11:5-13
*When I am weak then I am strong* _Luke 11:5-13_
Let us call to mind the lessons that we have learnt regarding persistent prayer. The following are the matters for persistent prayer
- We must persist for God
- We must persist with God for His Holy Spirit
- We must persist to grow in our faith, in Christ
- We must persist to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God
- We must persist to grow, as the church, in our common and singular identity in Christ
- We need to persist in prayer for our context.
Today, we will look at the final matter for persistent prayer, which is to pray to God for our distresses, suffering, pain and for other matters that weigh upon us.
We must call upon God at the time of our distress and hears us _Psalm 18:6._ He delivers us but His way of deliverance may not be the way, we would have desired the deliverance to be but the deliverance that God brings into our lives, causes us to glorify Him _Psalm 50:15._ He promises us that He will be with us in our troubles. He will deliver us and He will also honour us _Psalm 91:15._
We see an example of such a prayer, in the life of Paul and Silas. They were beaten with many stripes, put into the inner prison and their feet were fastened to the stocks. Did they pray to God for their situation and for deliverance? They surely did, for we read that they prayed but their prayer was not with grief and self pity but they were praying, combined with singing hymns to God _Acts 16:24-25._ The other prisoners were listening to them. Paul and Silas saw their situation through the eyes of God. They were sure that God was with them and was watching over them. They knew that God as using this experience to glorify His name and they also knew that they too would be glorified, through this difficulty.
Paul takes us a step further, on the matter of persisting in prayer, for God to deliver us from a problem. Paul knew, why the Lord had allowed a particular problem into his life, for He experienced God’s grace, which is God’s enablement, while experiencing the crisis. He, therefore, says with great elation, “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong _II Corinthians 12:7-10._
As the church, we are also called to persist in prayer, for the needs of each other, in the body of Christ _James 5:13-15/Mark 9:28-29._
*Thought to ponder*
```"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."```