Luke 18: 35-43: Specific prayer – specific answer.(please click for todays passage)

This is a day of opportunity: ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by’ (37). This is as true for us as it was for the blind beggar.

This is a day for urgent prayer (38).

This is a day for persistence (39). When we start to pray seriously about a person, or a particular matter, we often encounter circumstances that ‘rebuke’ us and tell us to ‘be quiet’ (39). Ronald Dunn, in his great book, ‘Don’t just stand there, pray something’, observed that when you start to seriously engage a situation in prayer it regularly ‘drops by worse’ before getting better. Unless you know that God has distinctly told you to stop praying, this is not a time to be put off but to shout ‘all the more’. Dig your heels in and pray through to breakthrough.

This is a day to be specific (41-43). Don’t be woolly or blurred at the edges. Some people find it helpful to keep a prayer diary and write down what they ask. They may also date it. Then they record the answer when it comes in. (I heard David Pawson say  on a recording I listened to earlier this morning,that we Christians tend to talk about answered prayers in surprised tones!!) Be definite about what you are asking, and how encouraged you will be (and others too) when the definite answer arrives on your doorstep.

This is a day to thank our wonderful prayer-answering God (43). Let’s do it!

Prayer: Oh Lord, I thank you so much for your many specific answers to my urgent prayers.

This is a day of opportunity: ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by’ (37). This is as true for us as it was for the blind beggar.

This is a day for urgent prayer (38).

This is a day for persistence (39). When we start to pray seriously about a person, or a particular matter, we often encounter circumstances that ‘rebuke’ us and tell us to ‘be quiet’ (39). Ronald Dunn, in his great book, ‘Don’t just stand there, pray something’, observed that when you start to seriously engage a situation in prayer it regularly ‘drops by worse’ before getting better. Unless you know that God has distinctly told you to stop praying, this is not a time to be put off but to shout ‘all the more’. Dig your heels in and pray through to breakthrough.

This is a day to be specific (41-43). Don’t be woolly or blurred at the edges. Some people find it helpful to keep a prayer diary and write down what they ask. They may also date it. Then they record the answer when it comes in. (I heard David Pawson say  on a recording I listened to earlier this morning,that we Christians tend to talk about answered prayers in surprised tones!!) Be definite about what you are asking, and how encouraged you will be (and others too) when the definite answer arrives on your doorstep.

This is a day to thank our wonderful prayer-answering God (43). Let’s do it!

Prayer: Oh Lord, I thank you so much for your many specific answers to my urgent prayers.