In Prayer We Persist
The sickle of prayer threshes a clearing under a canopy of Red Alder and Black Poplar trees. It is a grassy meadow in the darkest of wildernesses where the Almighty God brings his children to pray.
With bated breath, He fashions prayers to be prayed and eagerly watches for the child who will pray. In the clearing, prayers take form, breathe, and have their being, waiting with expectation for the one who will pray.
We persist in prayer, not because we know what to say, but because we must have our say. The God of the cloud and the night fire pre-determined uniquely suitable answers to the pinnacle of our needs long before our right-now trials and our present compulsions.
In His unquenchable delight, He waits inside the hour of our decision to speak a parable, "That men ought always to pray and not faint." So the child comes weary to the prayer that must be prayed and is given an eagle's wings.
The mystery of God unfolds before we begin to pray. We are permitted to shape the stumbling words and to strengthen the struggling hope of the prayer as the Holy Spirit interprets the soul of the prayer back to the Father.
This is the signature of eternal destiny, prayers born in heaven, manifested in brokenness, pre-fabricated to remake us whenever we pray. The altar call is to stampede the gates of heaven, where gifts with our names on them breach the rafters of the heavenly storehouses.
Oh, how God anguishes to see us storm the clearinghouses, crashing through gold-etched rotundas to take what is ours by the force of faith-filled prayer! We who have heaven's authority need not demand of the earth perversions of power flowing from thrones of injustice.
In the clearing, three meet, the prayer that must be prayed, the faithful God of the prayer, and the child who prays. It is a peculiar union, espousing the perfect symmetry of holiness and obedience.
The ark of persistence cradles God's child over the violent winds and waves of disappointment and defeat. When planted in hope and watered by faith, the seed of this persistence produces a 40-fold harvest of heaven's 12 fruits.
For a time such as this, prayer is needed. We who wrestle against the keeping hours persist in prayer until the stiffnecked relent, the mystery unfolds, and the God of all consequence has His say.
For prayer, send requests to askustopray@gmail.com. To join in prayer Monday through Friday, 6AM and 12 Noon, dial 1-651-369-9484. Enter the code 321254 when prompted.
Shalom, Beloved
