Giving the Lord No Rest

I’m reminded of a documentary I once watched about wild dogs in Africa. The adults would go out, hunt, kill their prey and feed. Completely full, they would return to where the puppies were being communally looked after by a couple of adults.

The next scene was amazing – the pups followed the returning adults around, whining interminably and generally harassing them until they regurgitated part of what they had eaten. Over and over this would happen and I remember the narrator saying “this instinct is built-in, once the whining starts, they cannot help it, they must regurgitate”. Fascinating.

There is certainly an analogy in the spiritual realm. Isaiah 62:6-7 comes to mind,

6 I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, 7 and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.

When I read the part about giving the Lord no rest until…, my mind immediately went to those puppies. They gave their parents no rest until dinner was served. Sometimes, this is what it takes to get answers in healing. This is the similar to the persistence Jesus described in Luke 11,

5 Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7 “Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

In short Jesus is describing prayer that does not take “No” for an answer, but persists until the answer comes. Who persists anymore in prayer like this, I wonder? When was the last all-night (or all-day) prayer session you attended? What’s the power and anointing worth to you and to me? Does TV and busy-ness of life swallow up all our time? Beloved, there are no shortcuts to power…