{"id":8280,"date":"2015-06-02T00:01:04","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T07:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lightbearers.org\/?p=8280"},"modified":"2018-03-26T15:06:12","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T23:06:12","slug":"obstinate-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/obstinate-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Obstinate Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The word obstinate<\/i> has a bad rap. The dictionary definition is:<\/p>\n

Refusing\u00a0to\u00a0give\u00a0up\u00a0or\u00a0let\u00a0go;\u00a0persevering\u00a0obstinately<\/p>\n

Refusing to give up or let go. Persevering. Insistently repetitive or continuous.<\/p>\n

Some of us are obstinate all the time. All of us are obstinate some of the time. It\u2019s possible to be obstinate in a good way. The Bible says:<\/p>\n

“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit\u201d (James 5:17-18).<\/p>\n

During a time of deep apostasy in Israel, Elijah obstinately refused to compromise his worship of God\u2014a good thing and a positive way to be\u00a0obstinate. He obstinately stood for right and endured with his people the three and a half years of famine.<\/p>\n

God not only spoke through Elijah, God led him, fed him, and finally vindicated him before the entire nation at the showdown on Mount Carmel.<\/p>\n

It was after the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed his sacrifice that Elijah manifested obstinate prayer.<\/p>\n

Even though there was no sign of rain, Elijah refused to give up or let go.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

James describes Elijah\u2019s first prayer for no rain as \u201cearnest.\u201d Then he simply says about the second prayer, \u201che prayed again, and the heaven gave rain.\u201d The actual account of Elijah\u2019s second prayer may not have been earnest, but it was definitely obstinate. The Old Testament gives a little more detail. Let\u2019s take a look:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, \u2018Go up now, look toward the sea.\u2019 So he went up and looked, and said, \u2018There is<\/i> nothing.\u2019 And seven times he said, \u2018Go again.\u2019 Then it came to pass the seventh time<\/i> that he said, \u2018There is a cloud, as small as a man\u2019s hand, rising out of the sea!\u2019\u201d(1 Kings 18:42-44).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you want to know what obstinate prayer looks like\u2014that is it! Even though there was no sign of rain, Elijah refused to give up or let go. One time, two times, three times, four times, five times, six times and nothing! Yes, Elijah was perseveringly obstinate; insistently repetitive and continuous. He kept praying.<\/p>\n

Elijah prayed once for fire\u2014boom, there was fire. But he had to pray seven times for rain. You get the feeling from the text that Elijah was settled into his prayer spot\u2014that he wasn’t moving till his prayer was answered. His obstinate prayer for rain is a vital part of the \u2018Elijah message\u2019 that God wants to give to His church today.\u00a0Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The word obstinate has a bad rap. The dictionary definition is: Refusing\u00a0to\u00a0give\u00a0up\u00a0or\u00a0let\u00a0go;\u00a0persevering\u00a0obstinately Refusing to give up or let go. Persevering. Insistently repetitive…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[125,27,126],"class_list":["post-8280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devotional","tag-elijah","tag-prayer","tag-the-latter-rain"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Obstinate_Prayer.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paAh8r-29y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8280"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11617,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8280\/revisions\/11617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}