Prayer: Persistence
“Effective Prayer
7 “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”
This morning, I read through Matthew 7. In this chapter, Jesus talks about the persistence in our pursuing God. We should “keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking,” in our prayers to God. The subtitle above this section in my bible is labeled “effective prayer”, and I believe there are two or three points that can be derived out of this passage.
Persistence
Our world is saturated by instant gratification. I can go on Amazon right now and shop for everything I need, pay for it, and have it delivered to me without ever having to change my clothes, get in the car, and drive somewhere. I also no longer have to wait for someone to be home for me to call them and talk to them. Growing up, technology advanced to communicating with people beyond waiting for them to be home for a phone call; it came to communicating with people via instant messengers (AIM or ICQ, anyone?)
Now, mostly anyone can contact mostly anyone without the wait time. There are more steps that you have to put in place in order to NOT be contacted!
C'mon...go from red flower to green flower already!
When I chat with God, there is something in my psyche that is already telling me that I'm going to get an instant response, and it's not because I'm a mighty prayer warrior (though, I'm in training). Because of how instant communication is, I feel as if I'm going to hear something from God within the hour that I reach out to Him!
Sometimes, that can be the case, but for most cases, God usually takes time to respond in a way that is effective to the answer I need. Questions that I wrestle with:
- How willing am I to persist in prayer over someone/something in my life?
- What am I willing to sacrifice in my life so that I can have more time to petition God about the need in my life?
- What's the emotional status that I'm conveying to Him when I come to Him the fourth or fifth time with the same request?
Also, when I persist, am I drawing in closer to God or further away? The passage goes on to say that God is a good father who knows how to give good gifts to his children. Am I keeping track of that in my persistence of prayer, or does it become muddied because I believe this need of mine is much greater than my family relationship with God?
Family relationship
Even wicked people know how to give good things to their kids. A Nazi father would know to bring toys to his kids to play with (even if he does evil during the day. Sorry, I've been watching 'The Man in the High Castle'.)
When I come to God and ask Him for something, am I coming with the belief/knowledge that He is good to me and wants to bless me? If I am believing that, will I continue to believe that when I come to Him on the seventh or eighth time of prayer for the same request? My view of God cannot be skewed by what I believe His response time should be.
Being an answer
The 'Golden Rule' is tagged onto the end of this passage. It's interesting because it says to do to others what we would like them to do for us. We are all human. We all have needs, dreams, desires, and hopes. Sometimes, we share those things with those around us. By sharing, we invite people to dream and hope with us.
When we invite people in, we may unknowingly be asking them to take part in the journey with us. Depending on what kind of people these are (family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, strangers), they may very well be the answer to the prayer that we have been pleading. James 2 says that we may hear needs all around us, but if all we give is an encouraging word (when we have the ability to bless), is our faith really useful? (James 2:14-16)
For me, I could certainly be more persistent in my prayer before God. I believe that I need to be able to express more earnestly my needs before God. Is there a magic number in how many times I need to ask God for something before He answers? I don't think so. Just being persistent and adopting a resilient attitude that won't abandon the need when it isn't quickly answered can fortify my assurance that God is who He says He is, that He's a good Father who desires to bring good things my way, and may employ others to be the answer that I am looking for.
Don't give up in prayer over the need you have. Take it to God!
“Parable of the Persistent Widow
18 One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. 3 A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ 4 The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, 5 but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”
6 Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. 7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?””
