Jesus teaches those who follow Him to pray. Praying as He teaches means to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking on that door you want opened. Luke 11. To persist in prayer is to ask boldly and urgently and to not give up.
The need to persist is ours alone. Our Father God does not need us to repeat a single prayer. We can’t manipulate Him into doing what we want by turning up the volume of our whining or throwing a fit like a frustrated toddler. He knows all we need before we ask. Matthew 6:8. He knows far more about us than we know ourselves. Matthew 10:30.
Persistence is necessary for us because every cry of our heart for something we want or someone we love has at its core a lesson we desperately need to learn. Sometimes the lesson is to unlearn a lie we thought was the truth. Often, He shows us another delightful aspect of who He is. He blesses us most richly when we learn who we really are in Him, His beloved children.
When we keep praying for that need that never seems to be fulfilled, we build our faith as we wait on God to do what only He can. Isaiah 40:27-31. If we don’t give up on God, our prayer in the waiting gives us wings to soar above our sorrow. When we keep praying for what we know God wills, He strengthens our legs to willingly run toward the fire of doubt and confusion until we break through into fire-quenching truth. As we simply trust in the provision of His goodness, He holds our hand, giving us endurance to walk across the longest, loneliest desert and through the darkest, most evil forest.
Having persisted in prayer, the answer comes swiftly, suddenly, and so naturally we could easily miss it if our hope was not settled on God. When we have persisted, God’s answer is always exceedingly, abundantly better than anything we could have ever thought of or dared ask for. Ephesians 3:20.
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3.
Amen and amen.
So You Will Know 