God Wants Us to Pray

Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. —Genesis 25:21

It began with Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, who had a barren womb. She had no children, and it looked as though she never would have. In ancient times this was considered as a kind of curse, but it turned out that God was signaling great blessing to come. Barrenness was sometimes a symbol of promise in disguise.

Maybe you feel that you are in a similar situation, and you want something to happen. Perhaps it is to have a baby, to know a particular success, or to have a prayer answered, but you have come to a dead end. You ask, “Why?” Yet, maybe that which looks so bleak is God’s way of saying, “Just wait a little while longer, and you will see all that I have done. I do everything with a particular strategy in mind.”

Isaac prayed. One of the greatest mysteries that I know is the sovereignty of God in prayer. I know that God can do anything and doesn’t have to answer to anybody, yet the same God tells us to pray. It amazes me. Perhaps you feel negative about the sovereignty of God, believing that there’s no chance He’ll give you mercy. Yet that’s the point: God doesn’t owe us anything. If we come to understand that, it might just put us in our place and lead us to pray.

Maybe the dead-end road you are on is God’s way of trying to get your attention. When was the last time you prayed? How often do you pray? What is God doing to bring you to the place of prayer? Unanswered prayer is often God’s way of getting our attention. You see, when we don’t get what we want, we are more teachable; whereas when we are blessed, we can become more unteachable. God has a way of bringing you to such a place that you’ll wait on Him.

Excerpted from All’s Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).