WITHOUT LOSING HEART

Have you ever prayed and not seen answers? Most of us have been discouraged by this phenomenon. Discouragement is one of the primary weapons the enemy throws at our prayer lives. If you wish to be a powerful prayer warrior you must be able to quench his darts with the shield of faith. Luke chapter 18 begins, “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” The parable Jesus told here was about a powerless widow going to an unjust judge. She was persistent even though her cause seemed hopeless.

2 Corinthians chapters 4 speaks to anyone who longs for supernatural ministry. It begins with the words,

“Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.”

If you are looking on temporal things, you will be discouraged. The words lose heart translate the same word used in Luke 18:1. In the Corinthian passages Paul speaks of our situation as mortals in supernatural warfare; afflicted, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. Verse 16 uses the same word again, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” In the presence of God we are renewed in the assurance of invisible and eternal things. Verses 17 and 18 continue, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”