Maintaining a persistent prayer life seems more and more difficult in the hustle and bustle of a busy world.
We’re pulled in so many directions with so many commitments that taking time to spend with God just seems like another burden on the to do list.
But here are 5 reasons Christians should be persistent in prayer:
1. Christ himself was persistent in prayer.
Click here to see a list of all the times Jesus prayed in the Gospels. Throughout scripture our Savior never stops praying which serve as the model for us that we shouldn’t either.
2. God hears our prayers.
1 John 5:14 ESV reads, “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us.”
How powerful is that statement? Unfortunately, too often we forget that profound truth. We pray about a situation or problem we are facing, but if we don’t receive the answers we want to hear from God after a few days, we give up.
We assume God isn’t listening in the midst of our own selfish pride and impatience. That impatience leads us to walk away from God, rather than running to him.
Jesus tells us, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.”
Therefore, in our moments of despair, we mustn’t lose hope. We must humble ourselves and pray with persistence — believing in God and knowing our prayers are being heard.
3. God uses our prayers to work on our hearts.
Oswald Chambers, in his famous daily devotional, My Utmost For His Highest , puts it this way:
“To say that ‘prayer changes things’ is not as close to the truth as saying, ‘Prayer changes me and then I change things.’ God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.”
As we come to God both day and night in prayer, we begin to see a change within ourselves, as we reflect Him and all that He wants us to be.
We lift up our request to God not so He can grant us our wishes, but so that we can practice trusting in Him to do as He wills with our concerns, no matter what that is.
As we look to God in prayer, we find confidence in knowing that he’s shaping us into all that we’re meant to be.
4. Prayer brings us into unity and fellowship with God.
Oswald Chambers also wrote that, “Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished.” It is through prayer that we have His presence with us, as we go about our day, rejoicing in Him throughout.”
Paul explains in Philippians 2:1: “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.”
For, once you begin to realize that God is not only your Father, but your friend, you find comfort in Him always despite the circumstances you may be facing.
5. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done in your past, God is there for you in prayer.“And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’”
The verse above shows that it doesn’t matter who we are, or who you once were, because as we begin to establish a relationship with God through prayer, we begin to realize that he loves us all the same.
In conclusion, great blessings come when one maintains a persistent prayer life, not only in the times when God is needed the most, but through the good times as well.
Therefore, we must “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV).
