Month: October 2026

Posted in Luke, Psalms

Perseverance

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” Luke 11:7

Jesus is teaching about prayer and He tells this story of a friend who seems unwilling to help. In Luke 18 He again is talking about prayer when He describes an unjust judge. In both instances the point is perseverance in prayer. “Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1)

You and I need to be confident in who God is and how He views us because prayer is a battle. I think Jesus is giving us insight on emotions we will face when God delays answers to our prayers. We may feel like God is sleeping and telling us to go away because we’re bothering Him. We may feel like God is a callous, unjust judge who doesn’t care about our needs, but only His own kingdom. What do we do when God’s character is attacked in our minds and emotions?

Jesus told us to press through them and keep praying because God isn’t like that, and those feelings are not reliable. The truth is that He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother, who never slumbers or sleeps. (Psalm 121:4) I read a plaque on a wall recently that said: “When you go to bed, leave your problems with God. He’s going to be up all night any way.”

Fight through the accusations that God isn’t just and keep praying and believing because Jesus assures us that God does hear our prayers. “Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7-8)

In essence Jesus is saying this: “God will be faithful to do His part, the real question is will we be faithful to do ours’?” Our part is to have faith in the character and promises of God even when our circumstances seem to contradict them. Will the Son of Man find us persevering, or will we give up?

Let’s stir ourselves to pray and not waver in the midst of our trials and emotions.

Posted in 1Peter, Romans

Pregnant with God’s Purposes

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“We know that creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time…In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” Romans 8:22; 26-27

Effective prayer is like pregnancy. Humility recognizes that we don’t really know what to pray so it starts by asking, “God, what do You want to do in this situation?” As we open our hearts in sincerity and surrender, the Holy Spirit plants in us the very word of God concerning the situation we’re praying about and we become pregnant with the answer.

God’s Word to us, Peter says, is an imperishable seed that will stand forever. (1Peter 1:23-25) The only question once God has impregnated us with His purpose is will we persevere with Him in the place of prayer and agreement until heaven’s purpose becomes a reality on earth? There is a weight when we carry His purposes; there is an inward groaning when the very opposite of what we have prayed seems to be happening. Will we continue to travail until God’s full purpose is accomplished or will we give up and allow that vulnerable seed to be aborted before birth?

“If God wants to do something why doesn’t He just do it?” you may ask. He chooses to co-labor with us and has purposed that His plan will not be done on this earth unless someone on earth wants it, prays for it, and does whatever is necessary to birth it. Why else would He tell us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven?”

Are you just surviving day to day or are you pregnant with God’s purposes for your life? Women that are pregnant don’t do things others do and don’t eat things other people eat because they don’t want to injure the baby. They limit their freedom because they don’t want to put what they are carrying at risk. Are you conscious that your life is not just about you, but about the One you are carrying and the purposes He has for you on this earth?

Now that’s something to pray about!

Posted in John, Luke, Revelation

Living on God’s Time

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“When He (Jesus) approached Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for Peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes…you did not recognize the time (kairos) of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-42; 44b)

Yesterday we discussed the difference between sequential time (chronos) and God’s special time (kairos). How do we live on God’s time?

  1. We have to recognize the trap of becoming enslaved to chronos time. I am a very scheduled person and it’s easy for me to define success as keeping all my appointments and fulfilling all my priorities for any given day. God wants to free me from that mindset, so I can begin to look more and more for His kairos appointments. Jesus was the master at this. He would often be interrupted on His way somewhere, but instead of driving on, He would recognize the timing of God and minister to the interruption. This is how many were healed and delivered in the gospels. He said that His secret was only giving Himself to what He saw the Father doing. (John 5:19)
  2. We need to recognize our utter dependence on God to “see.” Most of the Jewish people missed what God was doing in their day and then it became “hidden” from their eyes. The Laodiceans were also “blind,” yet Jesus promised, “eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see” (Revelation 3:18) if they would only repent. Why couldn’t they see? They had stopped acknowledging their continual dependence on God and had said in their hearts, “I need nothing.” To see we must continually humble ourselves and recognize we need God’s grace to see what He is doing.
  3. We need to fear God enough to respond quickly and wholeheartedly when a kairos opportunity is available. Jesus wept when He entered Jerusalem because His people had missed the time (kairos) of their visitation and had missed the mercy God wanted for them. The Israelites missed the kairos of God when they were on the edge of the promised land. When they finally decided they wanted to go in, the opportunity had been removed and it was too late. Let’s not hold back when opportunities are open to speak, or love, or give, or pray. Let’s seize the kairos of God and make sure Jesus never has to weep over us for the mercies we missed.