And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. – 1 John 5:14-15
For several years, I had the privilege to pastor a church with a woman in the congregation who was over one hundred years old. She was as sharp as a tack, and she loved the Lord. One year when my wife and I were getting ready to go to the Portland camp meeting, we went to see her before leaving town. During our visit, she said to us, “I just want to live long enough to see my son saved.” Her son was only a child when she became a Christian, and she had been praying for him all the years since. By that time, he was age eighty-five, and he had not been in church since age twenty-five. He later told me that he had nothing against the church family, but just had no desire to go. When he would drive by our building, he would not even look at it.
During camp meeting, that man had a dream from the Lord, and I believe it happened because his mother was praying for him. He dreamed that he was falling into Hell, and when he woke up he was in a complete sweat. He rolled out onto the floor and started to pray to God, and kept on praying until he was saved! He called his mother but was crying so much that she could not understand him, so he went over to her house and told her what had happened. She had been praying that her son would be saved and that she would live to see it, and the Lord answered both her prayers.
It pays to keep pressing on in prayer and to maintain an urgency in our hearts for the lost. I am amazed to think of how long this mother had to hold on for her son, though certainly there must have been times when she started to doubt and wonder if her prayers were having any effect. In those moments, the Lord gives strength and encouragement to keep us going. With His help, this mother got the victory in the end.
No matter how long we have been praying about a matter, today’s focus verses offer a comforting promise. The Lord does hear our prayers, and He will answer. Keep pressing on!