Stormin' Heaven

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I was thinking about persistent prayer and how long do we keep praying? Do we give up after a month, six months, a year? We may see small answers to prayer and yet not achieve the 'miracle' that we are waiting for. St John Chrysotom says " Whether, therefore we receive what we ask for, or do not receive it, let us continue steadfast in prayer". Waiting for our own personal miracle in the family we continue in prayer even after a year. We have seen many answers to prayer and many miracles and trust like my daughter when she had a separate prayer need - when she had a partial answer to prayer, she trusted in God to fill in the blanks - and He did. That God intended to bring some greater good out of it - so we continue to believe for our miracle. "Ask, and it shall be given to you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened. For everyone that asks receives and he that seeks finds and to him that knocks, it shall be opened" Matthew 7:7 So we need to keep storming heaven with our prayers until they are answered in one form or another. Like the widow woman in Luke 18:1-8 she never gave up and kept pestering the judge until he heard her case, so we need to never give up on praying until we see justice done. We need to keep storming heaven with our prayers and lay it all at Jesus' feet. " We should not bear it with bad grace if the answer to our prayer is long delayed. Rather let us because of this show great patience and resignation. For He delays for this reason: that we may offer Him a fitting occasion of honoring us through His divine providence." St John Chrysotom

The soul should move toward prayer the way a fish should move toward water; they are both a purely natural state.
--Saint Jean Vianney

Comments

  1. Jackie Parkes MJ2:44 pm, May 10, 2011

    I needed to hear this today Joanna...thanks for posting..

    ReplyDelete

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