Jesus spends hours in prayer. He tells stories encouraging us to do the same, first of a judge who gives in because he is tired of a widow’s pleas. In another story, a man has locked his door and gone to bed but gets up to give bread to his neighbor because the neighbor will not let him sleep. Paul sums it up: “Pray without ceasing.” (Have you ever prayed without ceasing?)
But what about Moses? The Promised Land was his life’s purpose. At 40, failure. At 80, the nation was delivered, but spent 40 years in the wilderness. At 120, they are going to enter the land God promised 400 years before—but Moses does not get to go! He begs and God answers:
“The Lord said to me, ‘ENOUGH! DO NOT SPEAK TO ME AGAIN ABOUT THIS MATTER! Go to the top of Mount Pisgah and look… and you will see it with your own eyes. But you will not cross the Jordan” Deuteronomy 3: 26-27.
When I was 8 I had an operation. At 9, the pediatrician said I might need another. But I remembered the needle in my backside the morning of the surgery, and I was terrified of facing that again. (It hurt!)
I prayed constantly: all day, all night, all places. During television commercials I muttered, “please don’t let me have a hernia! Please don’t let me have a hernia!” Same while walking to school. Climbing trees. Riding bikes. I prayed WITHOUT CEASING.
One day I realized: I have prayed enough. If God is going to heal me, he will. If not, I will have the surgery. Either way, it’s time to stop praying about this. Looking back, I believe that was God’s voice, though I would not have said so then. It gave me such peace. I realized that for once, I had prayed enough. God will do what God will do. And I am going to trust Him—and stop thinking about it. And that is what I did.
No doctor ever mentioned it again.
God, teach us to pray without ceasing—to pray so much you have to tell us to STOP!
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