Because I love Zion, I will not keep still.
Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot keep silent.
I will not stop praying for her…
I have posted watchmen on your walls;
They will pray day and night, continually.
Take no rest, all you who pray to the LORD.
Isaiah 62:1, 6
Isaiah’s struggle was rooted in his deep love for Jerusalem. Night and day, he pled for her restoration. He never stopped interceding, never stopped seeking God’s face, never tired of waiting and watching for God to bring back Jerusalem’s glory.
My mother was a prayer warrior, praying diligently for each one of her children and grandchildren. After she passed, I picked up the baton. I added my husband’s family members to my prayer list. This past year, I witnessed one niece and two nephews return to church and recommit their lives to Christ. It served as a reminder that all those hours my mother and I spent praying were not ‘wasted.’ Though Mum didn’t witness the answers to some of her most fervent prayers before she left this earth, God was at work.
Have you ever cared for something or someone as passionately as Isaiah cared for Jerusalem? Have you been praying for someone’s salvation without seeing any answers? Don’t grow weary. Don’t stop praying. Spiritual warfare is won on our knees. It’s where we fight for the souls of those we love and care about. It’s the place where we assert, “This one matters to me.” We pray because we won’t give up hope that one day the prodigal will come home.
“… prayer deploys, activates, and fortifies us against the attacks of the enemy. We pray because we’re serious about taking back the ground he has sought to take from us” (Priscilla Shirer, Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan for Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer, pg 14).