The Power of Persistent Prayer

Have you been praying for something or someone for a long time, and nothing seems to be happening? It’s tempting to give up, isn't it? We can become discouraged praying for the same things over and over again and never seeing even a glimmer of hope. We can begin to doubt whether God’s going to answer us, or even if He’s listening to us at all.
 

I believe we all have prayers that continue to go unanswered and perhaps, if we're honest, we've been tempted at times to simply give up, or question our ability to pray. We know our God is able, therefore we must doing something wrong. Satan will always do his best to discourage us and keep us from persevering in prayer, which is why I believe stories like the Persistent Widow  (Luke 18:1-8), Hannah's Prayer for a Child (1Samuel 1), Elijah's prayer for Rain (1Kings 18:41-19:8) are placed within the pages of the Bible. 

God doesn't want you or I to quit praying! 

Simple as that, and wants you to know why it's important at times to persevere and not give up, for the most effective prayers in the Bible are those that persevered in prayer. In Psalm 55:16-17, David wrote: “I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning, and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.” David, was "a man after God's own heart" and he knew the importance of persisting in beseeching God.  Even Jesus demonstrates this for us on the night before He was crucified in the Garden of Gethsemane, (John 17)

So, why should we be persevering in our prayers, even when we don’t get an answer? There are at least four reasons I've been able to find.

1.) Persistent prayers prepares our heart for the answer.

I'm sure you're able to testify that at times, when we make a request to God, God often wishes to answer in a better way than we’ve prayed for. Therefore, I believe sometimes God denies our prayer requests because we’re thinking and asking too small. He wants to give us something bigger and better that will put His glory on display! But first, he has to prepare our hearts for it. So God uses delays in answering our prayer to help us grow, get ready, and prepare us for a bigger and better answers.

2.) Persistent prayer works to focus our attention.

God doesn’t need to be reminded! I believe it's more to remind us Who the source of our answers and all our needs is. If every prayer you ever prayed were instantly answered we might be tempted to look upon God as a Genie and fail to revere Him as we should. God wants us to reverence the Blesser over the blessings. 

3.) Persistent prayer clarifies our request.

A delayed answer gives us time to search within to see exactly what we are asking for and to refine our prayers if need be. I believe when we persist in prayer to your heavenly Father, it tend to separate the deep longings from mere whims. It’s not that God doesn’t want to answer our prayers, but He wants us to be certain of what we really want.

4.) Persistent prayer tests our faith.

James 1:3-4 says, “When your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing” (NLT). I believe God uses these times to grow our faith and those closest to us. Just think how Hannah's faith grew once her prayer was answered - enough to give her son Samuel back to God. Spiritual maturity comes from having our faith tested, one of the ways God’s going to test our faith is by delaying some answers to your prayers.

Finally, we need to remember while we are persisting in prayer that: 

• God does hear our prayers. 
• He knows our heart and our deepest longings.
• He has our best interests at heart and see the big picture.
• His answers are sometime, wait 
• And sometimes His answer is no, but we can trust that it is only because He has something better in mind for each of us. 

I would love to hear your testimonies today to encourage others not to give up. Is there a request you waited a long time to receive an answer to? How did you feel when your prayer was answered? 

Is there a prayer you've given up on? One you haven't been persistent in praying?

Imagine for a moment what would happen if you gave up and in and stopped asking. Can we help you in persisting to pray?