What’s the one thing you’ve been praying for? Maybe you’ve been praying about it for several years or several months. Maybe it’s a person, a deep desire, or a specific cause. Maybe you’re asking God for a miracle, or perhaps a few. But somewhere along the way, your prayers became fewer and far between. Somehow that spark that lit your passionate prayers began to fade. You haven’t seen a change in the situation. You start to believe your prayers don’t matter. You’ve been hurt because God didn’t answer the way you hoped. Have you been here? If you’re like me, this happens more often than you’d like to admit. We think nothing is happening when we pray. We grow sleepy to the God who paints the sky with color each evening. We forget it was the Lord who put the earth into orbit and designed our brains and gave us breath. This same God is the One who lifts our chins and longs to hear us speak to Him. He is mighty in His power, and He is working even when we don’t see Him. I need to be reminded of this frequently. Maybe you do, too? The Bible is full of prayers, accounts of people praying, and calls to pray. We are to “be constant in prayer” (Rom. 12:12) and to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Paul said to pray “at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Eph. 6:18). Just a few verses before this in Ephesians 6:10–20, Paul speaks of the armor of God to help us stand against the devil’s schemes. Satan wants to lead us astray and distract us to keep us from communing with God. Because of the opposition we face and the nature of our weary hearts, we need these reminders to keep praying in faith.
Don’t Lose Heart
Jesus tells a parable in Luke 18 about praying with perseverance:
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:1–8)
I want to be like that persistent widow. We are to keep asking, to keep seeking Him, never losing heart. You know that thing you’ve been praying for, the one that made you run out of words, the one you fear He didn’t hear, or the one you’ve nearly forgotten? God heard your prayers then, and He hears them now. He sees every tear that hits your pillow. He knows every unfulfilled longing.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14–15)
Ask Him to save your parents’ marriage. Beg Him for the salvation of your friend. Pray for your future husband. Seek the Lord’s wisdom for how to help your hurting friends. Pour out your heart in desperation for healing from the cancer. Look to Jesus for His peace that He promises. Come before Him, even with your requests that seem simple. He cares about every part of our lives. Ask, and keep asking. It’s a sweet gift to see our prayers come to fruition, especially when we’ve been praying for so long. But even if we never see the answers to our prayers this side of heaven, God is still working. And in the process, we become more aware of His faithful presence, and He changes us to be more like Him. Oh, friend, don’t give up. Keep praying when you don’t see His hand. Keep praying when the miracle seems impossible. Jesus is at work. He’s asking you to keep coming to Him because He wants your heart. Prayer is not simply about asking and receiving; it’s growing closer to the Father as His children, sharing our hearts with Him, and asking for His presence in our lives.
A Prayer for You
Father, I pray right now for the one who needs to be reminded to keep on praying. Meet her in whatever situation she finds herself and help her feel Your presence. Show her that You care about every detail of her life—the big, the small, and everything in between. Give her a renewed passion to seek Your face, to ask for the miracle, to pray with sincerity and vulnerability, and to know with full confidence that You hear her desires, her hopes, and her cries. Help her to trust You and Your timing. Provide her with endurance to seek Your presence continually (1 Chron. 16:11). Amen.