The cry of the woman in labour is one of pain. She waits for the midwife to give the command to ‘push.’ Labour can be swift or can take hours, but when the time to push comes, birth is not far away.
There is an acronym based on the word ‘push’ which Christians need to learn: Pray Until Something Happens. Many of us give up during the travail of spiritual labour. We do not keep on praying and persevering until we see the promises of God fulfilled. We give up, discouraged, because there is nothing to be seen, no visible evidence of God working.

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah is told by God that after three years of drought, the rain will come. (1 Kings 18:1) 1 Kings 18 is a long chapter. First of all, we hear the command for Elijah to go to the king Ahab (who wants to kill him). We see Elijah meeting his fellow prophet, Obadiah – a reminder to us that there were other faithful believers in Israel, that Elijah is not on his own. We see the mighty confrontation between Elijah and the false prophets of Baal, that tremendous display of God’s power on Mount Carmel which definitively demonstrates to all God’s sovereignty and omnipotence. But still there’s no sign of rain.
Elijah tells Ahab to ‘go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.’ (1 Kings 18;41) But actually, only Elijah hears this sound. There is no sign of rain. Elijah is living by faith, not by sight. (2 Cor 5:7)
Elijah stays on Mount Carmel, climbing to the top, bending down to the ground, with his face between his knees. (1 Kings 18:43) Elijah is praying. He is wholly dependent on God doing what He has promised. He cannot bring rain; only God can.
He tells his servant to go and look toward the sea. The servant goes. He returns. “There is nothing there,” he says.

This is now the labour of prayer. Will Elijah hold on to God when there is no visible sign of the rain He has promised? Elijah has seen miracles that day, but there is still no rain.
Seven times Elijah sends his servant back to look while he remains in prayer. Six times he hears the words, “There is nothing there.” How easy it would have been to give up at this point. Maybe he had got it wrong. Maybe this wasn’t the moment. Hadn’t he achieved enough good for one day? Surely he was entitled to stop now!
But Elijah persevered. On the seventh occasion, the servant returns with a different report: ” A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” (1 Kings 18:44)
The signs are there now. Elijah has the assurance of God’s word and despite the discouragement of an ongoing drought, despite the apparent lack of results after praying for rain, he has persevered in prayer and is rewarded by the arrival of black clouds, wind and a heavy rain. (1 Kings 18:45) God brings the rain He has promised.
James tells us that Elijah was a human just like us. He was a man who knew how to persevere in prayer, and who therefore saw God’s word fulfilled and miracles happen. He was a man who learned to PUSH in prayer. ‘The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective’, James says. (James 5:17) Don’t give up. Keep pushing in prayer until God’s word is fulfilled and the results are there to be seen. Don’t allow the apparent lack of results to deter you. Learn to hold on to God and be inspired by Elijah’s example. Bow down and pray earnestly until spiritual life and new birth occur. Don’t give up.