Confession. Perseverance in prayer is not my long suit. The definition of perseverance is “to remain constant to a purpose, idea, or task in the face of obstacles or discouragement.” I don’t think I’m alone in this. I don’t mind obstacles if I can see them or identify them but I think the hard part is continuing to pray for something when you don’t clearly see the obstacle or are not seeing any evidence of change or progress.

After a while, the enemy starts messing with your head – suggesting that what you are praying for must not be God’s will since he is apparently not answering your prayer. If it’s not God’s will then you should simply accept that reality and stop praying. Sometimes he discourages you by telling you that your faith is insufficient or that something is wrong with you that God won’t hear your prayers so you might as well forget whatever it is you have been asking for. His goal is to get us to abandon the very need or desire that we have been praying into.

But think about it. If God were not going to answer that prayer, why would Satan bother with discouragement? Wouldn’t he rather us continue to expend our time and energy on something that will never come to pass than to refocus on prayers that God will answer? The fact that Satan would move in to discourage that prayer is evidence that his plans are threatened by your persistent requests and that, in the spiritual realm, he is seeing evidence that God is moving in response to your prayers.

I like Dutch Sheet’s take on the need for and reasons behind persistent prayer. In his book Intercessory Prayer he says, “The disciples had enough power flowing in their ministry to deal with most demons and diseases, but they came up against one that required more faith and power – and they didn’t have enough to overcome that one. Again, the obvious implication is that different measurable levels (of power in the spiritual realm) are needed to accomplish different things….When the prophet Elijah came to the widow’s son who had died, he spread himself out on the corpse face to face and prayed three times (see 1 Kings 17:21). Why did it take three times? Because the man of God wasn’t where he needed to be spiritually? Because he didn’t have enough faith? Because he didn’t do it right the first two times? We are not told the reason nor is it insinuated that any of those things are true. I believe that he was releasing a little more life out of his…spirit each time” (p.216). Sheets goes on to remind us that even after God told Elijah it was about to rain after a three and a half year drought, Elijah still had to pray seven times before a cloud showed up.

The implication is that that our prayers partner with God to release the power of the Holy Spirit into situations that, for reasons we will not always know, require more power than others. Some strongholds are stronger than others. Like a fortified city, some walls are higher, thicker, or denser than others and may require more bombardment than others to bring it down. Our prayers are the bombardment of heaven against enemy strongholds. In ancient times, some cities fell in days while others only fell after years of being under siege. Our prayers lay siege to areas under the enemies control or influence.

The key is to believe that every prayer makes a difference and that every prayer releases the power of heaven against a stronghold. Some come down immediately, others fall after a few months, and many will surrender only after years of prayer. We should be encouraged by Paul’s admonition in Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” We usually apply that law to sin, but it also applies to righteousness and to prayer. The promise is that when you sow in prayer, there will inevitably be a harvest of what you have been sowing. It is a law of the spiritual realm reflected in the agricultural realm. Paul goes on to say, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal.6:9).

In many things we pray for, persistence will be required. Not because what we are praying is not God’s will, or that we are not where we need to be spiritually, or because God does not regard our prayers – but because we are fighting against an enemy who has been digging-in to some situations for generations. It will take more power, more bombardment, more long-term warfare than other situations. But each prayer that is aligned with the heart and purposes of God releases more power into a life, a need, or a crisis and in due time there will be a reaping or a harvest of answered prayer. So…wherever the enemy has discouraged you in prayer, remember he has done so because he is threatened. Keep praying and shelling the enemy as you persist!

Okay. I have to weigh in on the Bruce Jenner debacle. The disturbing thing for me is not his choice to “make the change,” because there are many broken and wounded people in the world who make incredibly bad decisions. The disturbing thing is the conversations about it in the media and the complete absence of any discussion about God and his standards regarding Jenner’s decision.

When God’s standards are nowhere to be seen or heard in the public debate, we are on the brink of something catastrophic. The Old Testament is full of descriptions of wicked, foolish, and prideful men who say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge” (Ps.73:11)? There were many seasons in the history of Israel that the political and cultural leaders marginalized God and considered him irrelevant to the nation. Historically, God will allow himself to be seen as irrelevant for a while but then his “relevance” will come flooding in as judgment in an effort to turn hearts and minds back to him. The old saying that “there are no atheists in foxholes” also applies to national catastrophes when everyone suddenly feels afraid, uncertain, and extremely vulnerable.

Bruce Jenner is just another symptom of a culture trying hard to divest itself of notions about God because notions about God hold up standards and the possibility of accountability that many cultures have found restrictive. What we are seeing today is a kind of moral anarchy where every man has his own personal standard of right and wrong with no objective, absolute standard to guide him. Israel fell into that condition on occasion. “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). In other words, man was morally lawless except for what he determined in his own fallen nature was in his best interest. God and his Word were considered irrelevant.

That perspective is very dangerous in the lives of men but even more so of governments. As soon as any system of government decides that God is irrelevant, then that government also will determine that either there is no God or, if there is, he does not hold nations accountable nor bring them to judgment. Think about it. If leaders do not believe that God will judge them or the nation for sin and wickedness what is left to restrain them? Our government (along with “we the people”) pushed God out of our schools, then decided that the Ten Commandments had a bad influence in government buildings, then we decided that God could be tolerated as long as he was confined to churches but he had no business influencing the state. Then, some of our leaders, who reject the law of God have also rejected the restraints of the Constitution and have even redefined marriage, morality, the sanctity of a human life, and the nature of men and women. When government attempts to replace God with itself then government simply views itself as God. Required worship of the state and total submission to it is not far behind.

So what are we to do? There was a time and it was the intent of our founding fathers that the pulpits of the nation were the conscience of America. The expectation or at least the hope of those men who framed the Republic was that the church would stay strong in America, educate America’s people in the standards and commandments of God, and speak out against sin and wickedness as the conscience of a nation. The church has been strangely silent of late. Some speak out, but not nearly enough. We have cowered under the assault of political correctness and have been silent and even complicit as our nation has begun to call evil good and good evil.   Mr. Jenner is simply a symptom of our silence and our failure to evangelize and educate our own families and neighbors. It’s not too late for America but we seem to be in a barrel headed for the brink of Niagara Falls where few survive the plunge.

I encourage you to begin to pray in earnest for this nation and the Lord’s church in this nation. Pray that God would pour out a Spirit of boldness, holiness, humility, power, and evangelism on his church that she might once again become the conscience and the standard of a nation. Also pray that God will raise up men and women of faith and integrity and place them in positions of leadership and influence while removing those from positions of power and influence who have no regard for God…in government, education, and the media. We also must become the conscience of a nation again as individuals who unapologetically share our faith and values over coffee as well as in City Council and School board meetings.

God has solutions for Mr. Jenner’s confusion. I wonder if anyone ever told him about those solutions with genuine love and concern? Please pray daily for the church in America and the elections that are on the horizon.   I think I can hear the roar of the Falls.

In this Psalm, David makes some astounding claims regarding God’s protection for those who maintain an intimate relationship with him. In the current spiritual environment of America these claims would seem outlandish, boastful, and even presumptuous. Listen to what David says: He (God) will save you from the fowler’s snare, from deadly pestilence, from any terror that stalks at night, from arrows aimed at you, from stumbling, and from lions and cobras. He says that even though a thousand may fall at your side or ten thousand and your right hand, you will be kept safe from disaster, disease, and attacks. David declares that God will even assign angels to protect you in the midst of danger and crisis. For the most part, our culture – even today’s Christian culture – does not seem to view God and his personal involvement in our lives in the same way David viewed it.

Perhaps, our first thought is that David is using the literary device of hyperbole or exaggeration to make his point. But lets think about it. How many literal, biblical accounts are there of God providing miraculous protection for those in battle: the Red Sea crossing, the Jericho campaign, Joshua leading Israel in numerous battles against their enemies in the promised land (when Israel was faithful), Gideon’s unlikely but overwhelming victories, David taking down Goliath, Samson killing a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, David’s multiple miraculous escapes from Saul, one angel taking out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers camped around Jerusalem, Elijah taking on 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mt. Carmel, and hundreds of other accounts where the supernatural power of God protected his people in battle and gave them victory.   But does God still do that?

I have a friend who served in Vietnam and during the war his platoon was ordered to move into a village. On the outskirts of the village, a small shed came under fire as a possible outpost for enemy snipers. My friend said that they fired numerous rockets at the shed that kept inexplicably veering off and so they overran the shed, kicked open the door and found a Christian mother and her children hiding there, huddled in prayer. If you ask my friend he will tell you that Psalm 91 still paints possibilities for today.

We could continue to talk about angelic warnings and deliverance for God’s people from all kinds of threats throughout scripture including shutting the mouths of lions and protecting men from the flames in the book of Daniel. We could talk about the venomous serpent that attached itself to Paul’s arm without injury in the book of Acts. The truth is, from Genesis to Revelation there are numerous accounts of God’s intervention in the lives of men and women that parallel the claims of David in Psalm 91.

Some of that supernatural intervention simply flows out of God’s grace but one statement made by Jesus also sets a condition on some of that intervention. “Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith, let it be done to you” (Mt.9:29). In other words, to the extent that we expect the intervention of God, we will receive it. David echoes that thought in Psalm 91. “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust” (Ps.91:2). The rest of the Psalm is really a confirmation of David’s faith and a declaration that because of the love and care that flowed from the Father toward David, God would certainly protect him from his enemies, from plague, and even from wild animals.

I don’t believe David was born with that certainty but his history with God began to write that certainty on his heart. Before facing Goliath, David reflected on moments when, as a shepherd boy, God had delivered him from a lion and a bear. Upon reflection, David realized that he had not overcome those threats through his own brilliance and strength but that God had supernaturally intervened to save him. Part of our problem is the absence of reflection and meditation in our lives. Long days and nights alone in secluded pastures provided David with a lifestyle that encouraged reflection, introspection, and an ongoing conversation with the Father – since there was no one else to talk to. We might do well to intentionally seek out evenings or occasional days of solitude with the Father ourselves to intentionally reflect on his character and to look back to map his hand and his faithfulness in our lives.

It is important to notice that David declared God’s faithfulness and protection over his life on a regular basis. In doing so, he wrote that truth more deeply on his heart each time he spoke it or wrote it. As we begin to align our thoughts and hearts with God, we should also declare, write, and memorize the Word of God as it declares the truth we need to write on our heart. As we do so, the paradigm of God’s love, care, and faithfulness will begin to function as the lens through which we view life allowing us to see God’s care and protection daily in both big and small ways which, in turn will strengthen our faith. Intentional thinking, speaking, and acting are the keys to faith and faith is the key to unlock the promises of God. Let me encourage you to personalize Psalm 91 placing your name in the text, meditating on its application to your life, and memorizing all or sections of it so that faith in a day of uncertainty can stand on the same promises on which David stood. Be blessed.