Never Quit

There Abram called on the name of the LORD.
Genesis 13:4

In the days of Abraham, altars symbolized communion with God. They served as places to pray, talk, and listen to Him, and Abraham built them regularly. He was a man of faith who was called God’s friend (James 2:21).

In Genesis 12 there’s something in Abraham I can pinpoint in my own life. Maybe you’ve seen the same pattern in yours. It was when Abraham failed to build altars and pray that he was most prone to worry and wander from God.

At Shechem when God appeared to him and said that He’d give Abraham’s offspring the land before him that was currently occupied by the Canaanites, Abraham built an altar (Genesis 12:7). On the hills east of Bethel before setting out toward the Negev, Abraham built an altar (Genesis 12:8).

But before he entered Egypt, the Bible doesn’t record that an altar was built. Abram wasn’t supposed to be in Egypt. It was worries about the famine in the Negev that caused him to wander from God’s plan for his journey. Once in Egypt, his worries did not diminish because there was food on the table. He then started to worry that the Egyptians would kill him to get to his beautiful wife, Sarai. Abram told the half-lie that she was his sister instead of being forthright that she was his wife (Genesis 12:11-13).

Although Abram’s fear and worry escalated, the initial decision to not seek God’s guidance in prayer must’ve seemed minor. After all, he was only planning on staying in Egypt “for a while” (Genesis 12:10).

No decision is too small or insignificant to seek God’s counsel. Although the realities of his worry were legitimate, food was limited in the Negev due to famine and the Egyptians did indeed notice that Sarai was a very beautiful woman (Genesis 12:14), God’s care was powerful and sufficient. The LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai (Genesis 12:17). Pharaoh returned Sarai to Abram and ordered them to go (Genesis 12:19-20)!

Go they did! They repented and returned to God, going first to the Negev where God initially instructed them to journey, and then back to Bethel where Abram first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the LORD (Genesis 13:4).

Abram failed in his faith journey, but he never quit. Even after a full season of studying and teaching the theme, Prayer – No Worries!, may the same be said of us.

Prayer Step

Do you feel like a prayer failure? Learn from Abraham. Never quit. Repent, return, and call on Him again today.

No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.

Leonard Ravenhill