When Do You Stop Praying?

We have been planning a graduation party for our daughter for months. Its going to be an outdoor picnic party set up under our apple trees by the pond. We're going to have a camp fire going in case anyone would like to roast marshmallows. We have a food tent all set up and ice trays made to sit under the salads. And we have been praying, for months, that this day would have nothing but sunny weather.


Today is the day of the party and its raining. But I'm still praying. Its only 8:30 AM and the party isn't until 2:00 PM this afternoon. God can do a lot between now and then. When do you stop praying for a situation? When it looks impossible? When circumstances make it seem like nothing is changing? When others tell you to? I think the answer to that question is that you never stop praying for something to change right up to the very end and then you pray some more that God will give you the grace to go in another direction.


I do have a back up plan and that isn't a sign of poor faith. I just understand that God's ways are not my ways and just maybe the earth needs the rain more than I need it to be sunny for a party. So until 1:00 PM I will pray for clear skies and sunny weather for this afternoon. And at 1:00 PM I will load the food and decorations into the van and drive five minutes down the road to our son's church and we will have the party in his fellowship room. But I'm still praying. 


We walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). The sky is dark and cloudy and its raining right now as I write this, but we walk by faith, not by sight. I have faith that God hears my every prayer and I have faith that He delights to give good gifts to us His children. I have faith that He answers my every prayer but His answer isn't always yes. But it is always for my good. 


When it looks dark and hopeless in your situation remember to keep praying. Don't be discouraged by those around you who tell you to give up. Keep praying. Don't look at the circumstances and think its impossible. Keep praying. Keep praying and never stop. A few years ago someone came up with an acronym that I just love. Its P.U.S.H. and stands for Pray Until Something Happens. Let me encourage you today to keep praying until something happens. We serve a great, big, wonderful God who loves us and cares for us and cares about even the smallest things in our lives. When do you stop praying? Never!

Following are twelve passages of Scripture in which the Lord tells us that He wants us to pray to Him and that He wants to answer our prayers:
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (Matthew 7:7)
"Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 18:19)
"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Matthew 21:22)
"Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:24)
"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke 11:13)
"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." (John 14:13-14)
"And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." (John 16:23)
"For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." (Romans 10:12)
"For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." (Ephesians 2:18)
"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. . (Hebrews 10:19)
"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." (1 John 5:14-15)