When The Prayers Must Cease

There comes that moment in many a saint’s life when you know you must stop praying. You stop praying for the person who’s sick because the Lord has answered the prayer by taking the person to heaven. It’s not that prayers cease, it’s that they change in purpose from the pleading for a person to the pleading for the strength to endure the present pain.


That happened to me five years ago. I spent several painful weeks pleading with God to spare my mother. I knew in my heart that He wasn’t going to. I knew that the thing I dreaded and feared more than anything was going to happen. On that morning of March 16, 2006, I stopped praying for my dearest mom. 24 years of prayers were halted and my heart began begging for relief. It’s natural in times of deep sorrow to look up towards heaven with grief swollen eyes. The heart feels the need for some answers. Some things can never be explained. God never explained to Job the purpose of his loss. He doesn’t always explain the purpose of ours either.

There’s solace in knowing that God knows best, in knowing that we are in need of endurance and in the encouragement not to forsake our hope. There is a promise that runs true. I will never leave you or forsake you.  Dear saint, whatever the trial, the sorrow, the sickness or pain, know that we are Christ’s and our hope is secure in Him. All that is here will not remain but all that is in heaven is established and reserved for us forever.