“And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” – Luke 18:1
The Bible tells us much about prayer. As followers of Jesus we can enter boldly into God’s presence with our prayers and know that God will give us mercy and grace. We’re invited to lay our concerns and anxieties before the Lord in prayer and exchange them for peace and comfort. We’re assured that God hears our prayers and looks upon them with favor. We’re confident that God knows our needs before we even give voice to prayer. But we’re also told to pray persistently, to pray without ceasing, and to be asking, seeking, and knocking in prayer on an ongoing basis.
Prayer isn’t like sending an email that we fire off and forget about. Prayer isn’t like telling Santa what we want for Christmas or like visiting the ATM to quickly get what we need. There is a greater purpose to prayer than merely passing along a list of needs from time to time. Prayer is an invitation to cultivate a meaningful relationship with the Creator of the universe.
We’re able to be in relationship with God by the reconciling work of Christ on the cross. We enter into relationship with God through faith in Christ. However, like any relationship, we must work to deepen it. That comes, in part, through our regular conversations with God in prayer. The pursuit of God is the greater lifelong purpose of prayer, not simply the fulfillment of specific requests. Hence why Jesus taught His disciples, and us, to pray persistently and not give up when we don’t quickly receive the answer we want.
God uses our consistent and persistent prayer to strengthen our relationship with Him. He also uses our prayer to reshape our heart and mind to be more like His. Over a lifetime of prayer, we come to realize prayer is less about getting what we want and more about aligning our desires and will to God’s. God uses our prayer time to listen to us, to speak us, and to transform us. Through persistent prayer we learn to be at peace when His answer is “No” because we believe He has better plans. We learn to be at peace with “Not now” because we come to understand how much better His timing is than ours. Thus, as we are faithful to meet the Lord often in prayer, we remain encouraged, no matter the situation and no matter God’s answer to our requests.