The Stories We Tell: 28 Days Of Truth-Telling For The SoulSample
DAY 12 | KEEPING ON
centering thought
“The preoccupation and fear were real, and they occupied my emotions. I prayed … calling out to the Lord for a solution. The more I prayed, the more I was challenged to keep praying and persevering …” –from Regina
encouragement from God’s word
Read: MATTHEW 7:7-11
devotional direction
In this age of heightened political correctness, it is tempting to feel like a nag for persisting with a request. “I don’t want to be a pest,” we say to ourselves, and so we let our plea fall away. We don’t want to appear needy or greedy or inappropriate or obtuse, and so we fall silent and carry on without having obtained the thing we hoped to obtain.
The approach is understandable, even if Scripture encourages a different tack.
In striking contrast to our natural tendencies, Matthew 7 tells us not to give up but to keep on. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking, keep on praying, and eventually, it says, you will receive. But before you take this as some name it-claim it magic trick, understand what the “keep on” is for.
As Regina’s tale from the pages of The Stories We Tell demonstrates, one of the most profound benefits we receive from choosing to come before the Lord in prayer is that an even greater desire to pray is stirred up. God exhorts us to “keep on” in prayer because he knows that as we look to his will, his ways, his strength, his voice, his insight, his sufficiency, his grace, we will find that which we’re really looking for—namely, more of him.
question to ponder
What desire of your heart have you withheld from God in prayer, for fear of his refusing your request?
Scripture
About this Plan
Based on the "The Stories We Tell: Real Women. Real Lives. Real Love" Church Edition. This twenty-eight-day devotional experience has been created for you to, in effect, think more carefully about what you’re thinking—about who you are and why you’re here and the role God longs for you to play in impacting the world around you for good. Consider carving out ten or fifteen minutes each day for twenty-eight days, during your first waking hours, perhaps, or just before you close your day and head to bed.
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