Breakthrough! – Or rather keep PUSHing.

Over the last few days I have been thinking about some of the ‘mad’ things that Paul has written about and how they are actually a necessary part of our living. Here’s another:

”Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thes 5:16-18

Overlooking the whole ‘be joyful always’ thing (which I guess ties in a previous blog) I was challenged by Paul’s recommendation to ‘pray continually’. The thought that struck me as I read these words was this: What would drive us to pray continually?
Or, to put it another way, what stops us from praying continually?

Now I realise that ‘praying continually’ is not about being in a prayer meeting 24hrs a day, it is about living and breathing in God’s presence. But what stops me from praying? I guess it is because we doubt, I wander if anything will actually happen. I am unsure whether my prayers are accurate of indeed imbued with authority. If we prayed with an air of expectation then we would not stop until we saw breakthrough.
Or, to put it another way [yet again], we’d Pray Until Something Happened.

When my parents came to visit the other week my father spotted our game of solitaire (you know the game where you have to move marbles around until you are left with only one in the centre).
Any way, my dad was convinced that he could do it even though for the first hour of trying he found a variety of ways to fail. You’d be forgiven for thinking that he’d never succeed, but my dad was convinced otherwise; he was certain that he was on the brink of being able to do it. He continued to be on ‘the brink’ for a further half an hour and then all of a sudden there was only one marble left on the board before him. He looked at it disbelievingly for a moment. He knew this would happen, he was expecting it, but he wasn’t expecting it just then, but there it was; the solution. He just kept playing until something happened!

I know that I am often guilty of thrill seeking praying; prayer meetings that are exciting and leave you on a high without really stretch your faith. They seem dynamic but they don’t go anywhere, if we don’t want them to. We need to start praying because we believe something will happen, because we need something to happen.
This won’t come easy, it doesn’t just happen because we have a change of heart or focus. Breakthrough comes at a cost, and the cost is ours. How much time will we devote for breakthrough? How much do we care for breakthrough?

The early church once stayed up all night praying for Peter because they were seriously concerned that his imprisonment may lead to his death. They prayed desperately believing for breakthrough and yet were still surprised, just like my dad, when it came. Perhaps if the breakthrough had not come when it did they would still be praying in the morning. Perhaps they would have been too desperate for God to stop.

Will we wake up crying out ‘Lord, give us what we need.’ Will we live the day with a heart breaking for breakthrough? The persistent widow needs to be our role model.

Continual prayer is fuelled by a genuine need. If we do not want God we will not seek Him. If we are absolutely convinced that we need Him, nothing will hold back our prayers. Breakthrough will come.