1 KINGS 18:42-44: So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then
he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, “Go up
now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And seven times
he said, “Go again.” Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small
as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!”
Concerning answers to prayer George Mueller wrote, “Never give up until the answer comes. I have
been praying every day for 52 years for two men, sons of a friend of my youth. They are not
converted yet, but they will be! . . . The great fault of the children of God is that they do not continue in
prayer; they do not go on praying; they do not persevere. If they desire anything for God’s glory, they
should pray until they get it.”
Elijah believed in persistent praying. Seven times he bowed in prayer; seven times he sent his
servant to see if God had answered yet. While there is nothing magical about the number seven, it is
the number associated with completeness in the Bible.
When this seventh prayer was offered, the servant came back with the report that a cloud was on the
horizon. Elijah kept praying until his prayer was completed.
A prayer is never complete until God has answered. We need to keep praying until we have the
assurance in our hearts that God’s answer has been given or is on the way. To stop praying too soon
may forfeit the very thing we’re praying for.
Don’t be a quitter. Keep on with your prayers until they’re complete. Let God’s answer be your final
amen! Oh, those two men for whom George Mueller prayed for so long? One became a Christian at
Mueller’s funeral; the other some years later. Keep on praying.
PRAYER IS NEVER COMPLETE UNTIL GOD HAS ANSWERED.