Yo-Yo Prayers

It was first invented in ancient Greece.
It is basically an axle, which is connected to two disks.
String is looped around the axle.

A player puts his finger in the slip knot on the free end of the string.
The player allows gravity to spin the object…unwinding the string.
The rotational energy winds the string back up to the player’s hand.

The yo-yo.

Yo-Yo was first registered as a trademark in 1932.
Donald F. Duncan bought a California toy company in 1929.
This company manufactured about a dozen handmade toys.
Duncan saw the potential of one toy in particular…the yo-yo.
The Duncan Yo-Yo was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1999.

I never could get the hang of the yo-yo.
I had no problem letting the yo-yo go down the string.
Gravity took care of that motion.
It was getting the yo-yo back up the string that caused problems.

I watched other people put the yo-yo to sleep, do the flying saucer, go around the world.
My favorite yo-yo trick was rock the baby.
For me, it was just a spectator sport.
I had no skill in yo-yo-ing.

The toy chest is not the only place you will find a yo-yo.
You will also find a yo-yo in your prayer life.

You have probably done it yourself.
You pray for something in particular.
You give it to God…only to take it back again.

Yo-yo prayers.

Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said, “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ ” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8)

Throw the yo-yo down.
It will come back up.

Pray and don’t give up.
Keep praying.
Have faith that God hears and God answers.

We pray…we rest in that fact that our request is in the best possible Hands.
Then we worry.
It is taking too long to get an answer!
We take it back…we worry…we pray all over again.

We may see our yo-yo prayers as lack of faith.
I don’t think God sees them that way.

We pray…we take it back…we pray again.
There is something important we must remember in our yo-yo-ing.

WHO is the object of our faith?
WHO are we praying to?
WHO is the one we run to?

God…our heavenly Father.

God, the loving Father, who knows how weak we really are.
We may think our faith is stalwart.
We may truly believe we have left our prayers in His Hands.

The Spirit is willing, but the body is weak. (Matthew 26:41)
God knows that.

God is looking for persistent prayer….even if we do yo-yo a bit.

God is not like unjust judge who gets annoyed at the widow’s persistence.
God will answer those who cry out to Him in faith.
Day and night…no matter how much we yo-yo.

We may go back and forth…up and down.
Yet, all the while, we are going to HIM!
And that makes all the difference.