Have you seen the new television show about Sarah Palin? Last night I was channel surfing and stumbled across the last few minutes of it. Before long they were rolling the credits and showing clips from future shows. There was one clip of Sarah and Bristol out shooting and Bristol missed a few shots. Her mom came beside her to encourage her, but she didn’t say what you’d typically expect to hear from a mother. She said, “Don’t retreat, just reload.” And she handed Bristol another bullet for the shotgun. I laughed out loud before moving on to another program.
While it was a sassy statement, it bears truth in spiritual things. If you look at Luke 18:1-8, you find God saying the same thing to His children as Sarah Palin said to Bristol, “Don’t retreat, just reload.” Many times we find ourselves going to God in prayer and when we don’t get the answer we want right away, we tell ourselves God is too busy or He didn’t want me to have it. God is a good God and He desires to give good things to His children [Matthew 7:11]. He’s not Santa Claus or a magic Jeannie that responds to our every whim, but He does desire to give us abundant life [John 10:10].
Don’t forget the first part of John 10:10, “the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.” Just as God has plans for you, so does Satan [Jeremiah 29:11]. He tries to interfere with God’s plans for us. He’s been doing so since the beginning of time. Look at Adam and Eve in the Garden. God had a beautiful plan and then Satan came in and tried to mess it up. Thankfully, God’s plan never failed [Psalm 33:11; John 3:16].
When you are crying out to the Lord for something, be it wisdom and discernment or divine intervention, don’t retreat if you don’t get the answer immediately, just reload and go again, knocking on the door of heaven, until you receive word from the Lord.