Have you persisted in prayer? Have you? Have you really, really prayed hard? Have you prayed for a long time? Have you ever had something on a prayer list that you came back to day-after-day for a long time? Have you prayed consistently, while days turned to weeks and weeks to months and months to years?
God encourages us to pray with persistence. To “keep on praying and not give up” Luke 18:1.
Do you ever wonder why? After all, God hears you the first time—and He does not forget. So why does He encourage us to pray about things over and over? I believe it is because persistent prayer blesses us. We get to know God by spending time with Him.
Jesus told a great story about prayer in Luke 11:5-8. Imagine friends from far away show up to your house unexpectedly in the middle of the night. In this culture, few things are more important than the hospitality ethic. So you jump out of bed, get dressed, and welcome your friends to your home. It is an imposition, but they would do the same for you. Anyone would—after all, hotels offering paid lodging are almost unknown. And the distances involved make it dangerous to turn anyone away after dark. You must welcome them, feed them, and feed their livestock—donkeys, horses, camels, whatever.
But what if you have no bread? What if you were planning to bake bread the next day? You must feed your guests tonight! So you hurry to the home of your nearest neighbor. You bang on the door, begging for bread. You explain the situation. Naturally, he understands all about the hospitality ethic. But he says no.
“Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I have gone to bed! I can’t get up to give you anything.” Luke 11:7.
So what do you do? You keep knocking. You keep on talking through the door, shouting about your unexpected guests. After all, your neighbor said his door was locked and everyone was cozy in bed—but he never said he did not have bread. Of course he has bread. It is the staple of every diet. It was a fluke that you were out.
So you keep knocking, banging, pleading. And Jesus—the One to whom we pray—says YOU SHOULD PRAY THE SAME WAY.
“I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs” Luke 11:8. “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door WILL BE OPENED. For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door shall be opened” Luke 11:9-10.
PRAY HARD! Pray without giving up! Pray WITHOUT CEASING, 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
Take time to jot down some key prayers. Praying with a written list takes your prayer life to another level.
ΑΩ
Household Words: 