“Walking in Persistent Prayer”
The Gospel today is very familiar to us. In Luke 5:9-10 Jesus said, "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".
Let us ask ourselves; do we take Jesus' words literally? I assume that most of us have learned this. At times in my life I know that Jesus has answered my prayer, but there have been other times that my prayers have not been answered. Does this mean that our Lord is not listening to me? We strive to trust and believe that God does respond; however, we don't always recognize His response. We have really important needs every day, so we pray to God and tell Him all about them. We know we can approach God with confidence because He is good. Maybe someone we love is really sick and we ask God to heal them. But what do we do when it seems like there's no answer to our prayer?
When this happens, we might be tempted to give up and stop praying. But the Parable of the Persistent Friend teaches us to never give up. That's right! The persistent friend seeks what he needs to do the work of the Kingdom by serving someone in need. God wants us to be persevering in prayer. The seeking and knocking is a picture of asking. The scripture is full of instructions and examples concerning the importance of continuing to pray whether you see the results quickly or not. Philippians 4:6 says "You are to pray at all times and not lose heart'. We should not let laziness or unbelief block our prayer life. We have to believe God, keep praying and give thanks to Him.
Today, may we pray for open eyes, open minds, and open hearts to hear Jesus answering us. He can give us more than we ask for. God answers our prayers at the perfect time. Sometimes we are not ready yet for the answer; He is just making the circumstances just right for us to receive. While we wait, Jesus wants us to focus on Him. We were created to be in relationship with God and when we take that relationship to an intimate level, it bonds us not only to His presence but also to His strength. Prayer that expresses our hurts and emotions is most assuredly welcomed by God because it demonstrates our trust in Him. In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words than words without heart.
