4 Ingredients of Persevering Prayer

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Jim Wolstenholm is a retired Navy Veteran. He pastors a church in Gilmer, Texas. His mission is to help people follow Jesus so they can live the abundant life and change their world. He is married with two grown sons and two terrific grandchildren. Visit his blog at www.jimthefollower.com.

I keep asking God and I am not receiving an answer. Is there something wrong with my faith? If I ask God once, shouldn’t that be enough? If God knows what I need why do I need to keep asking him?

There are mysteries to prayer that we may never understand. There are also certainties about prayer that we can apply to our lives and place our confidence in.

Jesus gives us solid teaching about prayer. Discovering what he taught will guide you as you pray and help you sustain a strong prayer life.

What did Jesus say about persevering in prayer?

Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7 (HCSB)

We must never give up in prayer. It may seem that God does not answer but we must remember what Jesus said! Keep on praying. While we pray, something is happening.

We pray until the time is right for the answer we need. Joseph spent years suffering and praying for relief. Read his story in Genesis 37-50. For thirteen years he was enslaved and imprisoned through no fault of his own. How do you know if you must wait for years for your answer? You don’t. So you keep on praying.

We pray until the person we are praying for finally responds. I am praying for salvation for family and friends. I will keep on praying for them. It is God’s will that all be saved and none perish, so it is essential we pray for those we love to find Jesus. But the choice to follow him remains in their hands.

We pray until we have an answer and we understand that sometimes the answer is no. There have been many occasions where I began to pray for something. I believed it was the right thing and I persevered in prayer. After spending much time in prayer, I found that God had removed the desire for that thing from my life. His answer was no and I ceased to pray for it.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. … “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:1, 8 (NIV)

Persevering in prayer answers the question: Do we have faith? Continuing to pray in the face of silence requires great faith. When we believe that we are praying effective prayers and still the answer does not come, we must exercise faith to continue. This is what Jesus was talking to his disciples about in Luke 18.

Persevering prayer is “all-in” prayer. It is prayer that you put your whole being into. It’s not casual, sporadic or indifferent. It is prayer that takes time and energy. I wonder how many prayers go unanswered because we haven’t invested enough into them. I am sure that I have repeatedly failed at this point. Have you?

A quiet place and a determined resolve make for persevering prayer. When we truly desire what we pray for it is appropriate to call out, cry out and plead! How often that happens in scripture. Read the psalms!

What do we need for persevering prayer?

1) Faith. I have already mentioned this and it is essential. Our faith is not in the process and it is not destroyed by our circumstances. Our faith is in God. When we focus our attention on him and who he is, our faith grows. Worship and meditation on the awesome character of God inspires our faith. We can truly believe in him. He will erase all shadow of doubt from our hearts.

2) Conviction. Conviction is similar to faith. It is a deep abiding belief in what we do. When we are convinced prayer makes a difference it becomes a core value in our lives and we go to that value over and over again. As I help people follow Jesus, I have mentioned prayer thousands of times! I know it works. It is one of my core values.

3) Determination. This state of mind will keep us praying. When we are determined to receive an answer, we don’t stop praying until we have that answer! I praise God when someone I am praying for accepts Christ or experiences healing. Determination means we never give up. That is our mindset about prayer.

4) Effort. My effort falls short too often. But when I labor in prayer I am renewed and I experience the presence and assurance of God. Strong effort in prayer also builds my faith, conviction and determination.

Finally, if you are to persevere in prayer, you should ask God to help you persevere! He loves to answer that prayer!

What do you think? If Jim’s post resonated with you, please tell us in the comments. We’d love to hear your story. And please share on social media if you think this would bless someone else.

Photo by Biegun Wschodni on Unsplash

3 Things to Defeat Being Overlooked

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We are honored to have a special guest post by Eric Gale. Eric is a follower of Jesus, husband, and father of 3 daughters. Additionally, he is 3rd-degree black belt and sensei in Tai Chuan Do Karate. You can find him at FaceYourGoliaths.com where he will help you slay the Goliaths in life. He is also a huge fan of Star Wars and blogs about using Star Wars to share your faith at TheChristianJedi.com. I also highly recommend downloading Eric’s free ebook, “Releasing Your Inner Daivd,” available here.

Have you ever felt like David, who was considered the least of his brothers?

We know that the prophet Samuel came to Jesse’s house in Bethlehem to anoint King Saul’s successor.

Jesse trotted out Eliab but Samuel was told not to consider Eliab’s height or appearance. Then Jesse brought out his next six sons and none of them were picked. When asked if he had another son, Jesse mentioned that indeed there was one more, the youngest, but he is tending the sheep.

Do you feel like someone that is overlooked?

When David was brought to Samuel, the LORD told Samuel that David was the one. How do you think David felt after seven of his brothers had been brought out to Samuel before his father remembered him?

How humiliating for David!

He was overlooked because he was the youngest and had been out doing his job, tending sheep (not a glamorous job).

During his time tending sheep, David was being prepared for what God had in store for him.

While shepherding, David would kill both lions and bears with his sling. David also had time to be alone with God in prayer and in singing. He even was called up to sing and soothe Saul.

Sometime later, David was going about his normal life when Jesse instructed him to go bring bread to his eldest brothers and cheese to their commander. This was the normal errand for the youngest son.

David was not old enough or big enough to be sent off to war. His brothers were. David was left at home.

When David arrived at the front lines, he heard Goliath’s taunt and can’t believe what he hears and that no one is doing anything about it.

His eldest brother Eliab “burned with anger” when he heard David talking with the men and berates David.

David would not have any of Goliath’s blasphemy and mockery.

David was the only man in the army willing to fight Goliath and word was reported to Saul.

Saul heard about David’s training in the wilderness and wanted to fit him with the king’s armor. That did not work so Saul had David go out and fight Goliath with what David was used to.

David’s time as a shepherd allowed him time to get to know God and to practice with his sling.

The fight that was to transpire between David and Goliath was one that David gave completely over to God. He trusted the LORD to show up and defeat Goliath but he still was willing to do his part.

David’s faith in the LORD and his ability with the sling made short work of this hulk of a man.

3 Lessons Learned

1) God can and will use your abilities and past to give you a future when you do His work.

David’s time as a shepherd allowed him time to work with his sling and to build up courage against lions and bears. David also was able to spend alone time with God and get to know Him better.

2) Your family may not always support you.

We see this in how David was overlooked by his father when Samuel came to Bethlehem. We also see it in how Eliab treated David, with contempt.

3) Others may try to get you to do things their way and not the way you know.

David knew how the LORD had gifted him and told the king that he could not use the king’s armor. We are all gifted and need to use our gifts in the way God intends. We need to be mindful of when people in our lives tell us we need to do things a certain way since that is how they did it. Times and giftings do change.

The LORD Will Triumph

Remember that every battle is the LORD’s and His victory is assured.

As believers, we are part of the body of Christ. We are each gifted in a unique way and need to function the way God has made us.

How to Experience the Extraordinary in the Ordinary

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We are honored to have a special guest post by Rachel Larkin. Rachel lives in New Zealand with her husband and their three young adult sons. She is the author of Simple Prayer: The Guide for Ordinary People Seeking the Extraordinary. She writes about growing in faith and developing your potential on her website at http://rachellarkin.com/. She is also a practising Chartered Accountant, home schooler for fourteen years and craves chocolate constantly. 

I highly recommend Rachel’s free eBook, available here: The Untold Story: 7 Steps to Seeing God in the Midst of your Real Messy Life. I’m sure you’ll be blessed by it and enjoy it as much as we did. (BTW, these are not affiliate links. We get no commission or anything if you click them or buy from Rachel; it’s just an honest recommendation.)

 

God often takes what is ordinary in life and sprinkles it with extraordinary divine moments.

Look at Jesus’ first miracle while He was on this earth. He took ordinary water at a wedding of a family friend and changed it into the best wine that the guests have tasted. He showed up powerfully in the middle of everyday life!

Jesus was involved in many occasions of adding the extraordinary to the ordinary. The crowd was hungry as they had been following and listening to him all day. The call went out for supplies, and an ordinary boy gave up his ordinary fish sandwiches to Jesus. A prayer of thanks was said over the food. Something divine then took place. Multiplication happened. An ordinary lunch turned into an extraordinary feast for over five thousand people. This kind of miracle wasn’t a one-time event either.

I remember a time when we had a young family and very little spare money. I prayed that God would stretch the very little that we had. I ended up calling our car the Elijah car because of an unexplainable situation when the gauge was signaling empty. I went to the gas station to fill the car. But to my surprise the car filled quickly and the cost was only a quarter of what I would normally pay for a full tank! It struck me right there on the pavement of the gas station that something divine had taken place. There didn’t seem to be any other way of explaining what had just happened. God turned up in my ordinary life!

My life is filled with accounting work, home-schooling, keeping a home, writing, loving my husband and raising our children — all ordinary work. But when I pray over my ordinary work God starts to work in the background. I notice moments that have a dash of the divine in them.

  • A conversation with one of my young adult sons turns into something deeper and hearts are affected.
  • A ‘chance’ meeting with a stranger becomes a moment of extra encouragement for my soul.
  • A morning walk generates ideas that can only originate with God.
  • The simple act of driving to work is transformed into a sacred journey of communicating with my Heavenly Father.

Ordinary people with ordinary abilities, possessions and tasks can see the fingerprints of God touch their ordinariness and create divine moments.

Take Action

Change your mind about your ordinariness. Decide to believe that God can use whoever you are and whatever you have. Spend time in discussion with God. Use the ordinary moments of your day to communicate with the Father. Have a mindful attitude about the events and people that come across your path. Look for God in those places. Seek His glory, it’s there.

Have you discovered God in the ordinariness? Feel free to share in the comments below.