How do you pray? Do you pray just once and let go or do
you pray persistently? What if you have prayed day and night
with deep faith, but God does not seem to hear you. You remain
jobless, your friend remains seriously ill and the man of your
dreams is nowhere in sight. What should you do?

Continuing to wait in prayer and doing nothing, you believe
God will see your faith. God may be teaching you the virtue
of patience and you accept God’s silence with a stoic
resignation that your prayers have not been heard yet.

Perhaps you think that if you pray longer and harder, God
will eventually answer your prayer. After all, isn’t that
what Jesus was implying in the parable he told about a man
who kept knocking at his neighbour’s door in the middle of
the night asking for bread, until his neighbour finally got
up and gave him the bread just to make him go away (Luke 11:
5-8)? What about the parable that Jesus told about the widow
who kept coming back to an unjust judge begging for justice
until she wore him out that he finally relented and granted
her justice (Luke 18: 2-5)?

Sometimes praying seems to leave you feeling like the
nagging wife. You hope for an answer to your heart’s
desires. Pray persistently and you will get what you want.
But is that really what Jesus was saying? Will God grant
your request just to get rid of you therefore allowing him
to attend to countless others so demanding of His attention?

You know God is all loving. Jesus personifies the character
of God in the flesh. The Bible shows various accounts of Him
being prepared to help the needy and showing compassion
towards them. God always hears and answers prayers. The
immediate response to a prayer may be a resounding ‘Yes.’ At
other times you receive a negative response despite
persistent prayer and the patience you believe you exhibit
as the wait continues.

Still, have no doubt that God wants you to pray
persistently. Why? Let’s look at the life of the apostle
Paul. He had what he referred to as “a thorn in the flesh”
(2 Corinthians 12:7). He didn’t say what it was but it must
have been a chronic and debilitating problem which at times
kept him from doing his work. He prayed more than once for
God to take this ‘thorn’ away. But did he get what he prayed
for? No!

Paul got something better. Paul prayed persistently with
faith and heard God’s voice. Paul learned God’s will in his
life. God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness.”(2 Corinthians: 9) Paul
realized that his ‘thorn in the flesh’ prevented him from
being conceited. Paul had many wonderful spiritual
experiences and developed great preaching prowess and it was
difficult not to brag. The ‘thorn’ kept him humble. Paul was
aware of his weaknesses and knew that his achievements were
gifts from God and not of his own making.

Returning to God repeatedly in prayer keeps the lines of
communication open. It allows God the opportunity to
communicate with you. In the silence of prayer it provides
the opportunity to hear God speak. Many times it is after
repeated praying that the words no longer come. This is the
time when you stop talking that you will hear God in the
silence.

Praying persistently is a way to rely on God for His
solution to a problem. You may think that you know the
solution so you pray and pray for it, but your solution may
not be God’s. There are times when God has to bend your will
to match His and it is only when you pray persistently that
you begin to realize that you have to let go of your own
solutions and let God work in your life. Oftentimes, our
first prayers are not the best ones and so sometimes, God
makes us wait. If we keep on praying, God will reshape our
desires until they match His desires.

Pray persistently because you know the communications lines
are open and God is listening. Actively speak with God to
open the way for resolutions to come back to you. Do not
lose heart. Keep praying and hold onto your faith. Hold on
to the greatest opportunity by allowing God to work through
you, in you and with you.

So how should you pray? Pray with persistence for the right reasons.
Experience God’s presence, goodness, mercy and power as He takes
charge of your life!