Last week was stressful at my house. We had a plumbing leak in the basement on Thursday and then on Friday, my husband developed a rapid heart beat. Not knowing what would happen, a guest speaker for Sunday was enlisted.
I am grateful to report that the leak problem was solved quickly and things are drying out. After a jolt of medicine and an overnight stay in the hospital, Lee was fine and sent home on Saturday morning. But since Larry Baker had been enlisted to preach, Lee decided to rest and let Larry do the Sunday morning service as planned.
Larry’s message was taken from Luke 11 and emphasized Jesus’ teachings on prayer. Larry pointed out that the story in Luke 11:5-8 was told to emphasize the importance of persistence in praying. Larry said, “I know God hears us the first time we ask. But for some reason God is teaching us to persist in our praying.”
Lee and I discussed the message and we both thought the same thing: Perhaps we are taught to be persistent to demonstrate whether or not we really mean what we pray.
It is so easy to quickly say, “I’ll be praying for you,” and never really pray. Or we say a quick one-time prayer for a situation and give it little thought afterwards. But when we mean what we pray, we will be persistent with God.
During the Pray the Perimeter Tour several years ago, I prayed with an older lady who said, “You’ve never really prayed until you have walked the floor all night praying.” She understood persistence in praying for a child or grandchild or some other need.
Through “Find it Here!” we have been challenged to pray for our communities by prayerwalking our streets and praying for each home. We have been reminded of the importance of praying for lost people by name. Will we persist? Will we be bold in what we ask God to do? Luke 11:8 says “yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.” Jesus told this story for a reason. Let’s take the lesson of the story to heart and pray like we mean it, praying persistently until lost people are saved.
