. . . ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. | ||
| Isaiah 62:6 (b)-7 | ||
| Through Isaiah, God says, “Give Me no rest until the things that are upon My heart are accomplished.” Jesus said the same thing. In Luke 11, teaching about prayer, He said, “At midnight, there was a knock on the door of a man’s house. ‘Go away!’ the man said. ‘It’s late.’ “But the cry came from the other side of the door, ‘I’m your friend. Open up!’ “‘No,’ the homeowner said. ‘My kids are all in bed. I don’t want to wake them up.’ “But the man kept knocking. Finally the homeowner arose and let him in - not because of their friendship but because of his importunity. The guy just wouldn’t stop knocking!” Jesus was saying, “If a man who doesn’t want to get out of bed responds to constant knocking, how much more readily will your Father respond to you?” Jesus used this story as an illustration of what prayer is to be. “Ask and it shall be given,” He would say. “Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you” - or literally, “Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking” (see Matthew 7:7). “Give Me no rest until these things be established,” God says. I wonder how much is not established in our lives simply because we stopped praying. I wonder how many miracles, how many blessings we missed because we stopped knocking. It’s not that God is teasing us. Rather, He wants to cultivate a relationship of faith, of perseverance, of affection, of communication with Him. Pastor Jon Courson | ||
