Persistent Prayer

John 4:47 “When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.”(NKJV) Prayer, imploring the Lord. Of all the areas in which believers struggle, prayer is perhaps the most common. Prayer is one of the most awesome privileges we are given during our earthly pilgrimage, yet it is frequently neglected and treated as a chore to be avoided. Prayer can become relegated to the desperate option of last resort. God will bring us to desperation if He must, but He desires, rather, that His children relate to Him through faith.
In Mark 11:24 Jesus said, “...whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
In James 1:6 we are instructed, “...let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”
Sometimes the prayer of faith may be a single, confident prayer. At other times, because of God’s own purposes, the prayer of faith must take the form of a persistent, ongoing prayer as in the parables of the persistent friend (Luke 11:5-10) and the widow and the judge (Luke 18:1-8). The father in John chapter 4 implored Jesus to come and heal his son. When Jesus answered with a statement about lack of faith, the man implored Jesus yet again, thereby confessing confidence that Jesus could save his son. Jesus then called him to greater faith, “go your way, your son lives.” If the man was to show faith at this point, he must believe Jesus’ answer and show his faith by heading home.
When we pray, let us pray with faith, both in God’s good supply and His desire that we persist in prayer until He answers. Then we can rest in that answer as we wait to see the work He will surely do. But before we can see that, we must PRAY!