"pray without ceasing"

"My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." Psalm 121:2-4

Our faithful God answers prayers. We all have seen answered prayer, from the big stuff to the mundane requests. Yet, often when I'm in the middle of a certain request that seems so urgent for God to answer, I become over-whelmed with the request that it consumes me. Like God needs to answer it immediately and/or in my way that I think is best! Well, let's be honest this is not good. Who can truly understand the mind of God? Who am I to be so demanding? I have no rights to demand from God, but we are told that we can present our requests to God (Philippians 4:6), He's faithful to hear them. I want to learn the balance of praying without ceasing, but guard against becoming impatient with the Lord when He may be working in other ways that are better for me (that I can't see), and so delaying my requests or perhaps saying no.

More and more I am convinced that I have no clue what I really need. Which is good because I can trust that the Lord does and that He will give me what I need in every station of life. In fact, He has given me all that I need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), He has given me His Son. And like the Psalmist said above, He the Keeper of my life. In fact, He is so very different then I am...He never needs to sleep and never grows impatient!

The reason I wanted to share this is because tonight a little prayer of mine has been answered! I starting praying specifically for it Monday night and found out just an hour ago that it has been answered...it was pretty urgent that the Lord would answer it, and He did in His right way. It's nice when God reminds us that He does hear our prayers (even the little ones)...and in the prayers that haven't been answered (like salvation for friends and family,better job, future husband, future stuff in general) I can rest that He knows and is in fact is sovereign over all my prayers and desires and needs! And is giving me exactly what I need for today, so that I may worship Him and depend upon Him.

Praise God that He remains faithful, when I can be so faithless! His providence in my life is always for my good and always for His glory! May we learn to pray without ceasing and walk in confidence that our Father knows and is gracious to His children! Let's keep lifting our hearts to the One who holds all things together, for this is where our true help comes from!

A John Piper Quote from his book Future Grace:

"It's a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness to wait for God in the unplanned place of obedience, and to walk with God at the unplanned place of obedience-to wait in his place, to go at his pace. And the key is faith in future grace."