Those who have been Christians for a while may have read or heard of the acronym P.U.S.H. I used to view it exclusively in terms of prayer but I recently got a new perspective inspired by one of the conference speakers at the recently held Assemblies of God (GB) National Conference. In Part 1 of this article, we will examine one of the aspects of this acronym.
The first aspect which is commonly known is; Pray Until Something Happens. Prayer is at the core of the Christian journey. Why is prayer so important? Prayer is the vehicle with which we commune with God but it does not stop there. It also strengthens our faith and helps us draw closer to God. Interestingly, our Christian journey starts with prayer. We come to the realisation that we are sinners and we come to God asking for mercy and forgiveness. We ask Jesus to come into our heart and make us new.
All through scripture, we see many examples of men praying to God. Abraham prayed for the city of Sodom and Gomorrah where his nephew Lot lived. (Genesis 18:16-33) Moses pleaded in prayer for the children of Israel even when God decided to wipe them out and create a new nation for Moses to lead (Exodus 32:9-14) When the King of Assyria threatened the nation of Judah with war, Hezekiah prayed. (2 Kings 19:14-18)
One remarkable thing about Hezekiah’s prayer is that he knew that what he was asking God to do did not make human sense: “‘It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands.” (Verse 17) He acknowledged that the Assyrians were a powerful nation who had defeated and laid waste many nations. He however prayed to God to deliver his nation from this powerful enemy and God answered! The Assyrians were defeated without a single shot from the Judean soldiers. In fact, they were asleep when the angel of the Lord killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers. With his soldiers decimated, Sennacherib the King of Assyria had no choice but to retreat.
The Lord Jesus prayed often to the Father and there are many recorded examples of his prayers in the Bible. In Mathew 11:25, Jesus praised God for revealing the truth of salvation to those who put their trust in Him in spite of not having attained a high standard of learning. He prayed at Lazarus’ grave before raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:41-42) He prayed for the Church in John 17. When the disciples saw Jesus praying, they were curious and asked him to teach them how to pray. He gave them and us the template of The Lord’s prayer in Mathew 6:9-13.
In the examples of prayer given above, God responded to the prayers of His people. Some answers came instantly while others took a while. The common denominator is that God came through. I don’t know what you are expecting God to do for you. It is possible you prayed for something in the past and decided to put that prayer on a shelf and focus on other things. I did the same many years ago but God showed up when I least expected and reminded me that He never forgot my request. Shortly afterwards, things began to unravel and the answer to my prayer came through!
Pushing through takes effort. Between the time we pray and when the answer comes, there is usually a lot of pushing involved. We need to push through in spite of the doubts, we need to push through in spite of the fear, we need to push through inspite of the reality of the situation we face. These factors will come one at a time or all at once to discourage us but we need to push past them all to the place of complete trust and total dependence of God.
One of the weapons I use to push through is to remind myself that God has come through for me in the past and He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) Another weapon I use is praise. When the doubts come, trust me - they will come, I would either play a song from my playlist or just spontaneously burst out in song to the Lord. Many times, I have experienced the doubts and fears go away as I sing my praise to the Lord.
Are you in that place of expecting God to do something and you are wondering whether it is ever going to happen? My advice? P.U.S.H!
