Ask. Seek. Knock.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)
God appreciates persistence in prayer. Prayer is not one and done. It is continuing to ask and more importantly seeking out God’s will. And then knocking on the opportunities that God presents before me and going into the doors that are opened.
How do we stay persistent in prayer? One way that I use is notifications on my phone. Throughout my day I am reminded to pray for those requests that God has put on my heart and requests that others have shared with me. Every day at 8am, 9am, 10am, and so on throughout my day I get a notification reminding me to “Pray for…”. If I am busy at the moment, these notifications accumulate and I pray for them later when I have time.
Sometimes I just say a prayer like, “Lord be with…” or “Bring healing to…”. It doesn’t have to be a long prayer — these are persistent prayers.
A friend of mine also reminded me that we need to pray for the Lord’s will in the timing of the answer to our prayers. Although we love to see immediate supernatural answers to our prayers, sometimes God allows a trial to linger in a Christian’s life to teach them valuable spiritual lessons.
As an example, last year my wife and I were both very sick for two months with a lingering cold with flu like symptoms. During that entire time we were unable to participate much in ministry, but we did pray. We prayed for our health. We prayed for others. We prayed for our nation. Our sickness united us together to pray for so many things. If God had instantly healed us, we would not have had that focused prayer time together for two months. God did eventually heal us, but he had other plans for us during that time.
Christians are not just limited to praying before meals or praying when we are desperate. We are called to “Pray without Ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) in good times and bad. This is a mindset of being in constant communion with God — of trusting God in a daily faith journey.
How will you be persistent in prayer today?
