Text: 1 Kings 18:41-44
Memory verse:
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭11‬:‭24‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Being so grateful when a senior friend gave me a money gift sometime ago, I said a big thank you. But the money was in the form of a cheque, which I needed to lodge in my account. Somehow, I didn’t present it in the bank until it was over a month. After about a few days, I received a call from the bank that the account owner hadn’t replied to the mail sent to him to confirm the cheque and that I should inform him to do that. Unfortunately, my friend had changed his email address, but the bank wasn’t ready to accept the new email he sent because of security reasons. So, his physical presence was therefore required, which was not possible since he wasn’t in the country. After waiting for some days, the bank returned the cheque to me. It took about three months before it was finally resolved. However, throughout this waiting period, I never for once doubted my friend’s credibility or whether he had enough money in his account to cover the value of the cheque, rather I kept loving him and his family, as I had always done.
To thank God before the result shows up is an act of extraordinary faith. It means that you are so confident of God’s faithfulness and goodness to meet your needs that you thank Him before you even see any evidence of it!
Thanking God after you have received your request is gratitude, but thanking God before having it is faith.
According to our text today, God promised rain in the midst of the severity of the drought, and Elijah declared to Ahab that he heard “a sound of the abundance of rain”. All he heard was a word, but he saw no rain, yet he responded in faith to what he heard, despite what he couldn’t see. Faith is not based on what is seen but what is heard through God’s word (Rom 10:17).
Elijah went up to mount camel in faith to pray. For six times, his servant returned and said, he saw “nothing”, until the seventh time when he saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand. Do you think Elijah could have been begging God for those seven times to send the rain that He had promised? Remember that begging doesn’t get God’s attention: thanking God in advance does.
Friends, stop bombarding the gate of heaven with the request that God answered the first day you prayed and begin to pray a prayer of thanksgiving. Your answer has been despatched already and is on motion. Hallelujah!

Prayer points
1. Father, I declare that You are faithful and good, and I will forever love You even when I see no sign of rain.
2. REMEMBER FIVE THINGS YOU PRAYED ABOUT RECENTLY AND THANK GOD IN ADVANCE FOR THEM.

Today’s declarations
1. I believe God for who He is, and I give Him thanks in advance for what He has promised me.
2. Once I hear His word, I will keep thanking Him even when I see no sign of rain instead of begging.