Persistent, fervent prayer

The Bible has a lot to say about prayer and how people prayed.  It is both our number one means of communication with God and our number one means of connecting other people with the will of God. 

Luke 18: 1 – 8 is a parable that Jesus told to help his disciples to always pray and not give up.  He told them about a persistent widow who went on and on to an unjust judge till he gave her what she wanted. An unjust judge is an oxymoron.  Judges are meant to deal in justice but this one, who on his own admission didn’t fear God or care about man, gave the woman justice because of her sheer persistence.  Jesus taught that if an unjust judge will do that, ‘will not God bring justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? I tell you he will see they get justice, and quickly’ Luke 18: 7 – 8.  The answer of course is, ‘Yes God will bring justice as he is the just judge. 

The interesting thing though is that in verse 8, Jesus finishes off this parable with the statement, ‘However when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth.’  For Jesus persistent, fervent prayer requires faith.

Sometimes God gives us prayer answers quickly but if we got easy, quick answers to our prayers all the time, faith would not grow.  Faith does not grow in the soil of easy answers.  If God quickly answered all our prayers on demand, God would become like a slot machine.  Prayer in, answer out and no faith is required for that.  Faith grows when we have to persist to get our answers.  If we have to pray fervently and persistently faith grows or we give up.  Jesus taught us not to give up.  If it isn’t important enough to persevere, it isn’t that important. 

Persistent prayer is like saving up for something.  If we immediately got everything we asked for, we do not hold it in the same value and importance as something that we have had to save up for.  When we get something that we have had to save for, we greatly value and appreciate it.  In the same way when we persevere in prayer, with faith, when the answer comes we appreciate it and we have greater faith and confidence to ask next time for even greater things. 

If you are flagging in prayer for something that you have been praying about for ages, stir up your spirit and faith again and ask God to help you pray with freshness.  Ask God too to show you if there is a better way to pray to achieve your heart’s desire – the salvation of a loved one, provision of some sort or healing.  But don’t give up.  If as you read this, you remember something that you used to pray for but haven’t recently, start praying again with fresh faith for it.