Your prayers will get the job done

I hope you had a great Easter holiday with family and friends. Ray had to work a shift at the hospital, and Eden and Jacob weren’t able to make it this time, so Heather, Leah and I had our own little, intimate Easter dinner: Ray’s special holiday ham, green bean casserole, potatoes au gratin, and multi-grain brown rolls with a honey-butter spread. “Food is for eating, and good food is to be enjoyed… I think food is, actually, very beautiful in itself.” – Delia Smith

Then Leah and I watched Mel Gibson’s The Passion movie. I spent the evening before bed, thanking Jesus for all He’s done in my life, asking for His wisdom, guidance, and blessings for this week, and  praying over our family. From the book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Prayer by Cheri Fuller, we read:

“Often we think it’s our work and our efforts that will make the most impact in bringing success or needed changes. But understanding prayer is the major work and thus the most productive use of our time makes a huge difference. The enemy doesn’t want us to pray because he doesn’t worry about our prayerless work, prayerless parenting, prayerless self-efforts; on the other hand when everything we do is bathed in prayer, he has a real problem! The prayers of the weakest, youngest, poorest, least influential, or newest believer who is right with God through a relationship with Jesus Christ can pierce the darkness.”

Sometimes you may feel like your prayers aren’t doing any good. You’ve been praying and praying for something for a long time, and nothing seems to be happening. Dear friend, don’t stop praying! God hears your voice, and your prayers are making a difference! Your prayers will get the job done.

The Bible indicates that our prayers are accumulative. There are bowls in heaven in which our prayers are stored. We don’t know how many bowls there are, but maybe you and I have our own bowl. God has something in which He stores our prayers to use at the right time:

Revelation 5:8 says, “And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.”

Then we read in Revelation 8:3-5: “And another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer; and he filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”

According to these verses, when God knows it is the right time to do something or when enough prayer has been offered to get the job done, He releases power – thunder, lightning, and an earthquake!  He takes the bowl and mixes it with His holy fire from the altar.

The bowl is being being filled up from your prayers. Your answer is on the way!

I believe each situation is unique. I think sometimes we can pray one short little prayer in faith, and God immediately answers it, such as when Jesus rebuked the storm on the sea. At other times, I believe God tests and stretches our faith, and we have to persevere in prayer. I share about perseverance in prayer in my ebook, Walking With God, when Ray and I prayed for two years for our daughter Leah’s healing. The book also includes other powerful testimonies of answered prayer.

Yes, God hears your prayers. If you’ve been praying in faith for something, don’t quit! Keep praying, and God will respond in power. Breakthrough is just around the corner.

***To learn more about prayer, be sure to check out my ebook Walking With God at my Estore. Just click here.

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