Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Persistence In Prayer

“Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). Jesus taught us to be persistent in our prayer life.

Sometimes, God answers prayer immediately, even before we say “amen.” Other times, the Lord asks us to persist in prayer until the answer comes. Sometimes that means days. Sometimes months. And sometimes even years.

Consider Elijah, who prayed one time and fire came down from heaven on Mt. Carmel. This was an instant answer to prayer.  But it took him three times of prayer before God resurrected the dead son of the widow. 



And Elijah prayed seven times before God sent back rain on the earth during that time of drought.


“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” ~James 1:17-18

Elijah was an amazing man of prayer. He prayed, and trusted God’s timing. Let us take a lesson from his example and persist in prayer, even when we don’t see an answer. An answer will come, if we ask in faith.

George Muller lived a life that was one of the greatest demonstrations of answered prayer. When he died, he had 50,000 documented answers to prayer! How amazing! According to his records, five thousand of those requests were answered on the day he asked them. Of course, that means 90 percent of the time, George Muller just kept waiting and praying. He prayed for 63 years for one man to come to Christ before that man ended up doing so!

Like Elijah, George Muller learned that we can trust the Lord. He said,

“Don’t let yesterday’s seemingly unanswered prayers stop you from praying in faith today.”


Wait on the perfect timing of the Lord, my friends. Keep praying. He will wait until He is most glorified in your situation… so don’t give up. You can wait on the Lord and trust His timing. Keep on praying.

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