THEREFORE I PRAY AND PERSEVERE ONWARDS IN OBEDIENCE
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: “Daarom bid en beur ek in gehoorsaamheid voort”
I was in conversation with someone and the person asked that I would share this answer with all my people.
It was about difficult circumstances in their lives that had not changed after six years.
My answer to her was the following:
Most of the time I do not understand why certain things happen in our lives as they happen – but I certainly understand what it means to be obedient – for our Lord have written in His Word for us:
LUKE 18:1 And He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
LUKE 18:2 He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. …
You can read the parable onwards in your own time.
Then with that in mind I also read:
1 JOHN 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will he hears us.
When I think that it is sometimes difficult for me to bring these two passages exactly in harmony with each other while things are happening to and around me, this great peace comes over me when I remember, that HE who created the whole universe and also created me, is also fully in control of this complexity and then for me personally, it is easy to take my needs to Him and only obey in sincerity as HE has taught us to pray:
MAT 6:9-10
9 Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
I share with you the following from the Word:
Most of Paul's followers loved him very, very much. So much so, that Paul, to whom our Lord had entrusted most of the New Testament and who had been so full of the Holy Spirit, that men were healed if only they laid garments which he wore on the sick and demon-possessed and yet he writes on occasion:
GAL 4:13-15
13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first,
14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.
15 What then has become of the blessing you felt? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.
Therefore, I believe when Paul, quite because of people who were incited by satan, while in prison in Rome waited to be beheaded, that many sincere people prayed for him in great earnest, as well as himself of course and yet the people who wanted him dead got their demand and he was killed.
Therefore, I pray and persevere in obedience, against the attacks of satan:
HEB 12:1-3
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
For, I am well aware that as to this set-up of His children's lives, our Lord expects us to believe in Him and trust Him fully, that everything will eventually work together for our good, yes, even if that eventually maybe only in the afterlife.
ROM 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,(in the end, no matter how long it may seem to me) for those who are called according to his purpose.
Because see –
Eventually:
2 COR 4:17-18
17 For this slight momentary affliction (if you compare it with our eternal life that awaits us) is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
For now I look at the things in my life that our Lord answers me immediately, and sometimes within time, and sometimes what seems to me in my humanity, that He do not answer – at least not until now – and I keep on praying in obedience because I know:
1SAM 15:22-23
22 And Samuel said, "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king."
Therefore, dear friend, let us pray and persevere in obedience in our race that leads to all glory – with our thoughts focused on JESUS and what HE has endured for our sake, so that we do not become discouraged and not loose heart.
Greetings,
Sakkie