{"id":1012,"date":"2021-05-10T04:16:47","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T04:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2021-05-10T01:17:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T01:17:23","slug":"monday-morning-manna-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/monday-morning-manna-34\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Morning Manna"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, May 10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monday Morning Manna\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Then Elijah said to Ahab, \u201cGo up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.\u201d So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, openly. 1 Kings 18:41, 42<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s topic is prayer and the subtopic is that you remain steadfast in prayer. The account as written in 1 Kings 18 is a fascinating one. In this passage the Prophet Elijah made his dramatic confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and following this encounter, after three years of drought, God opens up the clouds sending rain. Elijah knew that God was sending rain. He sensed it in his spirit, and he told the king that rain was coming. But he did not just go on his own way. God\u2019s Word tells us Elijah went up to the mountain and he prayed until something happened. Imagine with me the thoughts going through Elijah\u2019s mind. He says \u201cGod you promised the rain, I now hear of the abundance of rain, but I will continue to pray until what You have promised comes to pass\u201d. Elijah PUSHED!<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all heard the expression \u201cPUSH\u201d which means \u201cPray Until Something Happens\u201d, but how many times do we neglect the until part of this expression. Yes we might pray but often that\u2019s just where it ends because we\u2019ve given up. We pray for something to happen and when it doesn\u2019t happen when we think it should, we sit back in despair thinking God must not want to answer our prayer. Or maybe we think we have prayed about it, God knows about it, so now we just need to wait. But as I read the story about Elijah, I feel God telling me, \u201ceven if you know I am answering, don\u2019t give up praying. Keep pushing. Keep praying. Keep seeking. Keep searching. Remain steadfast and pray until you see the fulfillment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now in order to keep on praying we must understand how God answers prayers. Pastor Rick Warren has said that God always answers our prayers, but He does so in four possible ways: \u201cNO, SLOW, GROW, and GO!\u201d When we ask for something hurtful or unhelpful, our Heavenly Father who knows what is best for us, will answer \u201cNO\u201d. When it is not the right time, God answers \u201cSLOW.\u201d When things are not right or ready in you, God answers \u201cGROW!\u201d This is encouragement to know God wants to do something in our life before He moves the mountain and this is the appropriate answer to your prayer, because you are not yet ready. Finally, when your request is right, the timing is right, and you are right, God, in His love and wisdom, says \u201cGO!\u201d<\/p>\n

I do not want to condemn you if you have given up and got discouraged when your prayers didn\u2019t seem to be answered. I\u2019ve done that too. But God does not condemn us. He is calling us to repent – to turn away from our way of doing things to His way.<\/p>\n

May I encourage you today, as I encourage myself, too. Let\u2019s not give up. Let us ask God to help us to keep praying until we see the answer.<\/p>\n

Prayer for today<\/strong>: Lord, forgive me for the times when I have not persevered in prayer. Sometimes I stop right at the beginning because You did not answer right away. Father I know that time is in Your hands so I recommit my plans over to You. Have Your way and give me the patience I need to keep running this race until you say \u2018GO\u2019. Please help me today to remember the importance of perseverance. Help me to keep looking, even if it takes many times. Give me faith to keep watching to see your answer to my prayer.\u00a0 Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, May 10 Monday Morning Manna\u00a0\u00a0 Then Elijah said to Ahab, \u201cGo up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.\u201d So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1013,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions\/1013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}