Encouraged to keep praying

Because I serve the Lord, and because I have three children, Isaiah 44:3-5 always fills me with the sense of God planning a blessing in my life and in theirs.

These verses were written to Israel using the name of Jacob as representative of the whole nation. (This is a figure of speech called a synecdoche.) At first, Jacob was a doubting schemer. I can relate to him in the sense that I’ve often prayed and then tried to make the answer happen. He was not patiently trusting God all the time, and neither do I. However, after a huge wrestling match with God, Jacob learned his own weakness and that his strength depended only on the blessing of God. I know that too, both the wrestling and the lessons learned.

When I observe my children struggling through life, I see Jacob in them too. Two of them have confessed Jesus as their Savior, but only one will talk about it and that one does not seem to take seriously the fact of His lordship. All three fight God and all three need Jesus. I know that only God can bring them to that place of surrender and the delights of walking with their Lord and Savior.

Yet as time passes and progress seems to be slow, I am sometimes fearful that it will not happen. God knows my fears. He encourages me to keep praying. The battle for their souls is a spiritual one and must be fought with spiritual weapons. As I obey, there are days when my knees feel weak and my zeal falters. On those days, He often (and unexpectedly) offers me something like these three verses in Isaiah.

God says to Jacob His servant to not be afraid, “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring; they will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses.’ One will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; another will write with his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”

I am aware of proper biblical interpretation; I cannot take these verses out of context. Yet how is it that God draws me to them when I most need to hear them? This has happened dozens of times over the years that I have been interceding for my three children. One pastor told me that this is the Lord’s way of reminding me of His great power, that He can do it and I need to trust Him. Certainly my heart is deeply blessed as I read this promise to His servant.

So today I ask Him first to make my three offspring dry and thirsty for what only He can give them, and then to pour Himself on them so they will spring up with new life, and so they will name the name of Christ and call themselves His own.