Forty Days of Prayer: Day 21

Matthew 11:28-30

'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Here we are - we have completed 20 days of our 40 days of fervent, BIG prayers. How are you feeling? Have you seen any evidence that God is listening? Do you have any answers to prayers yet? Are you talking to God more than ever before? Are you beginning to grow weary of this process ? All of these are reasonable questions. All the feelings you have, be that positive or negative in nature, are completely understandable by the One who we are praying to. That is what is so unique about the God we worship. He understands all our feelings and concerns and loves us even when we doubt Him. Not only does He understand, He says in this focus verse He WANTS to take the burden we carry. He WANTS rest for our souls. We may be carrying burdens of sin, worry, fear, doubt, loneliness, oppression and just plain weariness, but He is asking to carry these for us.

Rest for the body and soul is two different things. We all know we need physical rest and recognize what a good nights sleep can do for us. Rest for the soul is different. God's rest as I understand it has more to do with belief, heart condition, and obedience. If we can let go long enough to believe He is who He says He is, trust in Him wholeheartedly and just follow Him, we can experience rest for the soul that scripture talks about. Oh ladies, when we get weary in soul, we tend to think this life and our stuff is all up to us. How we can worry and think we are the "savior" of our family or maybe our workplace. How can they possibly do ______ without us present to direct? The good news is this is just NOT about us. It's all ABOUT Him and UP to Him. Our job is to bring the concerns we have to Him and move out of the way for Him to act .

Kit talks about having childlike faith today. I think children aren't afraid at all to ask for the moon if that is what is on their heart. They are wise enough to know they cannot make that happen and innocent enough to ask for the seemly impossible. Let us be more like children and not be afraid for one second to ask and keep on asking for the impossible. Just choose to trust knowing He is hearing us, He does care , and He will answer in His way and in His timing - all which will be in our best interest. He wants to have conversation with us which constitutes relationship! We do that through these prayers we are binging him. Don't stop with the asking and remain aware , looking and listening for the answers. Trust they are what is best- even if you can't understand it at the time . My favorite line in today's chapter is : Just don't give up five minutes before you see God move in your life. Wow! The answer you are looking for may very well be right around the corner.

My challenge to you on this day is to just stick to the asking-even if it feels pointless. Let's REST together in the promise He is working all things together for them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose (paraphrase Romans 8:28). Don't give up the ship- it's not sinking and you don't have to worry survival is all up to you.

Further reading:Jeremiah 29:11;Psalm 55:22;Isaiah 58:6

Good and Gracious One,

Give us your strength today to carry on. Help us to trust in who You say You are and in what You say You will do. Even when we don't see movement, let us not fear or doubt; rather move forward in full confidence that can only come from You. Open our eyes to be aware of all"'God winks" so we don't miss a thing. We praise You for what you have done these past 20 days, for today, and for what You will do tomorrow. We look forward in anticipation of answers to our prayers that You will provide. Amen