Mid-Week Message - Don't Give Up!

"Rejoice always and delight in your faith; be unceasing and persistent in prayer; in every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus."  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (AMP)

Since the time I was a little tiny girl, my greatest ambition was to be a wife and mother.  Playing house was my absolute favorite thing to do.  When I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always the same.  A mommy.  So of course as I grew I assumed that as soon as I graduated I would get married.  

High school was a difficult time for me as I have told you before.  I didn't have a boyfriend so all ideas of marrying right after high school went out the door.  Fine.  There was always college.  I had always wanted to go to college.  I still didn't worry about marrying after graduation because surely God would never give me that desire if He wasn't going to fulfill it.  However, I had no boyfriends in college either so after graduation, I worked.  

Several more years passed during which I prayed regularly for the Lord to bring into my life the man I was meant to spend life with.  I was edging closer to the age of thirty and I was starting to get a little concerned that it wasn't going to happen for me.  However, by the age of thirty-three I was growing weary of asking and trusting.  I began to convince myself that it just wasn't going to happen.  Within two weeks, I had my answer.  

What I didn't know was that God was doing many things that I didn't know about.  I had lost the job that I had worked at for several years and been hired by Dell Computer Corporation.  Little did I know that the man the Lord had chosen for me was working about twenty feet away from me.  We met, had our first date, were engaged a month later and married three months after that.  My Father in Heaven had heard all those prayers after all.

I used this story because it is the incident in my life that taught me the importance of praying continually.  Even though I had begun to think that my prayers were going nowhere, God was putting things together that I couldn't even imagine.  Now, when I am praying over any situation and I feel like the answer will never come, all I have to do is look at my husband to be reminded that prayer is never fruitless.  It may take longer than we want it to and the answer may not be what we had hoped or it may be something better, but our Father always hears the cries of His children. 

As we have gone through so much hardship this year, I have clung to this verse.  "Be unceasing and persistent in prayer."  The other part is to "be thankful and continually give thanks to God."  I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is listening and moving whatever mountains need to be moved to cause all things to work together for our good.  He loves us enough to send His Son to die for us.  Why would He do anything less?

Are you searching for answers today?  Have you prayed until you think you can pray no more?  Have you just about decided that He isn't listening?  I beg you not to give up!  Talk to the Lord.  He loves to hear your voice addressing Him.  He is faithful, true and trustworthy. I can't tell you when the answer will come but I know it will.  I know because it always does.  Don't give up!  God bless you!