Dear Friend,
Have you ever prayed for something so long that you lost count of the days, months, years, decades? It can be so discouraging to see little positive movement. Maybe you’re praying for a spouse, child, friend, co-worker, classmate, or parent. Maybe your loved one is running from the Lord, or battling an addiction, or facing an identity crisis, or struggling with a physical or mental illness.
The bottom line here is that you love this person, they are suffering, you have faith God can help them, you’ve prayed in that direction, BUT you’ve seen little to no breakthrough.
You subscribe to the “I believe, God, help my unbelief” school of prayer.
You’ve asked. You’ve sought. You’ve knocked.
You’ve sought first the Kingdom, waiting for “all these things” to be added—hopefully to your loved one’s account.
You’ve done the whole “persistent widow” thing by putting your requests before God “with thanksgiving.” Yet nothing.
Your loved one continues to hurt, and so you hurt.
This hurt drives you to more prayer.
And you are right to pray. After all, our Heavenly Father delights to give us “good gifts.”
So you keep praying. But where is the fruit?
I don’t know about you, but at this point in the process, I get so discouraged that I might give up for a while. Usually, my love grows a little cold. I lack LOVE for the loved one because I’m so frustrated with the “field day” the enemy is having. I mistake my anger at the enemy as frustration with the person. I fail to seek God’s instruction for how I can show kindness or service or patience toward this loved one.
I was in such a phase last week. Then I heard a podcast that stopped me in my tracks. It was a testimony of a young man whose mother had prayed decades for him to leave drugs and choose Jesus. After many struggles, he did find powerful freedom in Christ and now serves as a youth pastor. He mentioned this scripture:
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21
I don’t know about you, but I know I’ve heard this hundreds of times, but it hit me differently this time. Why?
In my spirit I felt the Lord saying, “Yes, you’ve asked for your loved ones many times and in many ways. You’ve called the prayer meeting. You’ve fasted and prayed. You’ve sought my heart for these precious ones. And, no, you don’t feel like you’ve seen much fruit. But I can do MUCH MORE—immeasurably MORE—than you can ask or imagine. What I have planned will blow your socks off. You’ve let the lack of fruit diminish your faith. I’m asking you to EXPAND your faith. Ask me for MORE.”
Whoa.
The enemy has clearly been trying to plant doubt and steal hope from me. Nope, not gonna happen.
Because NOW I’m asking God for MORE.
More breakthrough.
More knowledge of God’s goodness.
More overflow of God’s love.
More return on investment.
More repayment for the years the locusts have eaten.
More anointing for proclaiming good news to the poor.
More healing for the brokenhearted.
More freedom for More captives.
More release from darkness for More prisoners.
More sight for the blind.
More declarations of the Year of the Lord’s favor.
More restoration.
More redemption.
More resurrection power.
More glory for God.
More plantings of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
More, Lord, MORE, we ask.
I hope, dear friend, that this little testimony encourages YOU to keep going to the feet of our good, good Father to ask again. This time for MORE.
With love,
Your friend