We rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.  He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again. 2 Corinthians 1:9-10

Laila was exhausted.  She and her husband had prayed for a baby. They’d gone to the doctor.  Month after month and then, year after year. But there was no baby and no understandable reason why. “I can’t pray about this anymore,” Laila told her father.

Have you been there?  Have you prayed about a need, a desire or a loved one until you felt you couldn’t go on? If so, you aren’t alone.

Follower of Jesus, first and foremost, you can ask the Holy Spirit to pray for you. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness,” says Romans 8:26, because the Spirit prays for us in ways that go beyond words, “with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.”

It is also powerfully encouraging to revisit just who our God is—to consider again His capability and His everlasting love. Our God, says 2 Corinthians 1 raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9-10).  Even more, this God who raises the dead, says, ” I have loved you…with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself” (Jeremiah 31:3). He is the giver of good gifts who invites me to ask persistently (James 1:17, Matthew 7:7, Luke 18:1).

But there are times when you may need others to both hold you up in prayer and to pray in your place.  Exodus 17 tells of when Moses was exhausted and couldn’t go on. Others stood by his side and physically held up his arms in prayer until the work of God was complete.

Laila just couldn’t pray for that baby anymore.  But her father kept on praying. God answered those prayers and, today, that long prayed for baby is a grown man.