Does it feel like your prayers hit the ceiling and bounce back in your face? I got a wonderful example from “technology”. I had been busy all evening and finally got a chance to sit down at my computer and check out what all my friends were doing and spend some time in meditation for this devotion. I turned the computer on and there was no connection at all. The lights were on, and my wireless said that I was connected, but nothing was happening. I was blaming my computer and decided to come up to my dad’s computer where the home base is located. I turned it on and it said, “Local access” then “limited connectivity”. The computer was on, I could use the computer, but I could not reach out into the ether to connect with anyone or to connect with the website I use to publish this devotion. God is so good to show us in small ways the workings of the bigger picture. There are so many times that we pray and the Spirit moves as quickly as if we were hard wired to DSL, every thing we need to know comes as a Word of knowledge or a Word of wisdom, scriptures we need to know come to our remembrance, man you just feel on top of the world, then suddenly you “crash”, the lights are on, you still voice a prayer to the air, but you cannot feel the connectivity that you need to know that your prayer is reaching God’s Throne! Have you even been there? I kept hitting the diagnostics and repair and watched over and over as it would try to connect and then give the fatal message again, finally I decided to try one more time. I prayed and told God that if there was any reason He didn’t want me to write tonight, I would just accept it, but if there was something He wanted me to say to let that connection come through so that I could finish, one last time I flipped the switch, jiggled all the wires in the back of the modem and instead of hitting repair I just typed in my website address and BANG, here I am. When you feel you have given everything you have and it seems to be doing no good, at all, give it one more chance and humble yourself as we see in 1 Peter 5:6-7 So be content with who you are, and don’t put on airs. God’s strong hand is on you; he’ll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you. I have heard prayers when people told God exactly how good they were and how much they had sacrifice for His kingdom! Give me a break, Hebrews 12:1-11 “Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?” We sit in air-conditioned/heated churches on padded pews, how have we sacrificed? We have not suffered persecution for our faith but I am very grateful to those who fought and were martyred for our religious freedom! If your prayers aren’t answered, you’ve checked and all your spiritual lights are on, maybe you have limited connectivity! Don’t quit, try one more time to get back online with God!
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