It is easy enough to shout on and pray on when you feel you are moving in the right direction. The difficulty comes when it seems you have stalled. That is when you will be tempted to stop your shouting, thanksgivings, and petitions. At such times, one man is tempted to give up the journey and another is enticed to proceed by his own grit. But neither of those options require prayer. Both errors can be pursued without fasting, grace, and the Holy Spirit. But if you turn to the right hand or the left, you will have spoiled the blessing being placed in your hands. God gave you the predicament that you might find another gear that is not your own.

The Apostle Paul said he was pressed out of measure, above strength and then he adds the cause: “We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:9-10). Assurance is too sweet a gift to be thrown away by self-reliance or unbelief.