Day 30 - Keep On Asking
I’m sure it’s crossed your mind. Why 77 Days? Seven days, O.K. Thirty Days…reasonable. Even Forty Days…it’s Biblical and Rick Warren has made it popular. Seventy-Seven (77) Days? That is a long time. Indeed, 77 Days is significantly longer even than the season of “Lent†(forty days before Easter) or the season of “Advent†(four weeks prior to Christmas). What’s the deal?
As believers, our intercession often lacks the Biblical persistence that was taught by Jesus. In Luke 18, Jesus told a parable to teach us that we, “…ought always to pray and not lose heart.†(Luke 18:1—ESV)
The story goes like this. There was a widow who made an appeal to a judge who didn’t fear God nor respect man. At first, the widow was rebuffed by this stern judge. Her request was not answered. But then this widow did an amazing thing—she didn’t give up! She persisted.
There’s a happy ending to this story. Finally, the judge gave in to the woman’s petition. He said, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.†(verses 4 & 5)
Jesus concluded the story with a question. “And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night?†(verse 7)
Are you asking God for anything that would require “crying to Him day and night†for seventy-seven days?
Today’s Scripture Promise: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.†(Matthew 7:7-8—NASB)