Persistence is important but both the picture and vision of what we are asking for can be shifted as we go further down the road of a particular prayer.
The prayer can be put in another context, or in another possible picture. It might be the same prayer, or the prayer might be amended to better fit a picture that the Lord is now bringing forth.
Similar issues can occur with respect to both personal prayer and intercessory prayer, in that the details involved may fit a larger picture that the Lord does have..
In the story of Jonah, there were some nitty gritty details involved with what was happening, including the point where the Lord grew a plant in miraculous fashion for Jonah overnight for the purpose of providing shade shade form the powerful rays of the sun, a supernatural occurrence directed in detail to Jonah, yet the Lord allowed the plant to suddenly wither much to Jonah's chagrin.
But there was a lesson involved that fit into a bigger picture scenario to this occurrence in that the Lord related the demise of this plant to his call to Jonah to preach repentance to the giant city and all its inhabitants pronto, in that because of their errant ways, they could also be subject to the a similar realms of demise as the plant, a plant that Jonah cared about so much, yet seemingly did not make the link to caring about the people of the city, whom he felt deserved their possible upcoming fate.
The Lord did care about the people and animals of the great city and their possible impending doom and related this lesson to Jonah about his concerns being there, even as Jonah has his own concerns.
The Lord was bringing together two distinct scenarios and tying together two at first seemingly unrelated pictures in his communications to Jonah.
The problems of the city, were larger and more important and from the Lord's perspective, the bigger picture that needed to be understood and noted by Jonah who was to have a role in communicating the need for repentance to the city and the people of the city who were lost in their errant ways.
There were details but the Lord had a whole big picture in mind for Jonah right then and there. Jonah didn't have the picture at first, but the Lord did have the picture and did reveal the big picture to Jonah.
The prayer can be put in another context, or in another possible picture. It might be the same prayer, or the prayer might be amended to better fit a picture that the Lord is now bringing forth.
Similar issues can occur with respect to both personal prayer and intercessory prayer, in that the details involved may fit a larger picture that the Lord does have..
In the story of Jonah, there were some nitty gritty details involved with what was happening, including the point where the Lord grew a plant in miraculous fashion for Jonah overnight for the purpose of providing shade shade form the powerful rays of the sun, a supernatural occurrence directed in detail to Jonah, yet the Lord allowed the plant to suddenly wither much to Jonah's chagrin.
But there was a lesson involved that fit into a bigger picture scenario to this occurrence in that the Lord related the demise of this plant to his call to Jonah to preach repentance to the giant city and all its inhabitants pronto, in that because of their errant ways, they could also be subject to the a similar realms of demise as the plant, a plant that Jonah cared about so much, yet seemingly did not make the link to caring about the people of the city, whom he felt deserved their possible upcoming fate.
The Lord did care about the people and animals of the great city and their possible impending doom and related this lesson to Jonah about his concerns being there, even as Jonah has his own concerns.
The Lord was bringing together two distinct scenarios and tying together two at first seemingly unrelated pictures in his communications to Jonah.
The problems of the city, were larger and more important and from the Lord's perspective, the bigger picture that needed to be understood and noted by Jonah who was to have a role in communicating the need for repentance to the city and the people of the city who were lost in their errant ways.
There were details but the Lord had a whole big picture in mind for Jonah right then and there. Jonah didn't have the picture at first, but the Lord did have the picture and did reveal the big picture to Jonah.
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