ROOTED RENEGADE

If you have been a follower of Jesus long enough, then you know that some answers to our prayers do not always come right away. Sometimes it takes quite a long time and in that process of time, many of us get weary.

Our knees get weak, our minds are attacked, and we become so weary that it becomes hard to pray. It can feel like it’s the bottom of the ninth inning in baseball and the bases are loaded. You are the one sent to the batter’s box to hit a home run and win the game for the team. Yet, you are so tired that you can barely move your feet. Your body isn’t cooperating and your brain decided it wanted a vacation.

You go up to hit and strike out. Losing the game for the team. Everyone’s mad and you feel defeated. And this is exactly how the enemy wants you to feel. Defeated so you don’t pray anymore. Defeated so you give up and get off the wall. Defeated so you leave the gates of your home and family open allowing him easy access. 

And quite frankly, there is nothing anyone can really say to you to make you ‘feel’ any different. You have had people pray for you and you felt like nothing changed. 

It reminds me of the passage in Daniel 10:2-13 where he prayed and fasted for three weeks. It’s where we get the “Daniel Fast” from. He didn’t have the answer he was seeking, so he kept pursuing God until it came. When it came, it was revealed that the angel who was delivering the message was delayed because of warfare.

And Hannah who had spent years praying for a child and in desperation and weariness she pushed one more time for God to hear her in 1 Samuel 1:10-11. God answered her and she birthed the prophet Samuel.

There are other passages of persevering in prayer for an answer. And these individuals teach us that we must keep going. We can’t fall down and park in the place where the answer hasn’t come.

It’s easy to give up. It’s easy to say that we can’t keep going. It’s easy to walk away and stop praying for something. The hard part, is to keep going. To keep pushing through when you feel you have no strength left. To keep pursing God for the answer to come.

Whether it is over healing or for a prodigal to return to the Lord, we mustn’t give up. God is in all of our stories and the answers will come. Whether it be 21 days or 21 years. God’s timing is perfect and He doesn’t forget us. 

The answer may not come how we want it to or how fast we want it to, but it will come how it is supposed to.

So how do we combat the weariness. By remembering the good deeds of the Lord. By recalling to mind all He has done in the past. It helps to write it out when you are weary. Grab a journal and start writing everything that comes to mind that God has done in your life.

And keep writing until you can write no more.

Psalm 77:11-12 says, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

Meditating on His good deeds also helps. The enemy wants us bound in weariness so we can’t recall what God has already done for us. And so we lose the perspective that gratitude brings. Gratitude keeps God’s goodness before our face day and night. It reminds us that no matter how long we have fought for or against something, God comes through.

I encourage you to take some time today and start writing all the things you can think of. And each day recall to mind the goodness of God. Gratitude is a form of worship that shines light in the darkness and exposes the tactic of the enemy, which is to keep us bound. No more! Let’s choose to be grateful today and every day to come.

Faythe