Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. —Luke 18:1
God doesn’t always answer our prayers immediately. He generally keeps His reasons for these delays to Himself, but in this teaching moment between Jesus and the disciples, one of those reasons is revealed: persistent prayer is good for our heart.
As long as we are praying—really praying, not just repeating words with our eyes closed— our heart is being drawn closer and closer to the One who can answer. Prayer itself is a sanctifying agent God uses to keep our hearts fixed on Him.
Whatever other reasons there may be behind the (seeming) slowness of God’s answer, we can be sure that persistence in asking, seeking, and knocking will be rewarded with deepening intimacy and trust between the child who asks and the Father who listens. We can trust that, though He does not always answer immediately, He is still hearing, and He is in the process of answering.
Make it Personal
Read the Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1–8). How does this parable inspire you to be persistent in your prayers?