Shameless Persistence

*I'm taking a break this week from the study of 1 Samuel, but I'll be back soon with more David!*

I’m involved in an amazing program called the Student Action Leadership Team (SALT) and it is truly my heartbeat. Over the years I’ve taken on more and more responsibility, and now I’m one of the coordinators. Part of my job is handling online registration. Which is pretty easy to manage. IF people actually fill out the application.

See, what happens is that people forget to fill it out. (I can’t blame them. I’m a total procrastinator, too.) Then I have to contact the veterans, the people who SHOULD know what they’re doing because they’ve been doing SALT for YEARS, and tell them that they MUST fill out the form. (Trying not to rant here, ha!) I’ve finally learned that telling them once usually doesn’t work. I have to bug them repeatedly, text them every week, nag them at the planning meetings, for them to fill out the form.

I hate doing it. I hate nagging. I hate having to remind them. I’m not a confrontational type of person, so I just don’t like it. But I’ve learned that there are times when being persistent is necessary.

One of those times is prayer.

Sometimes I struggle with praying for the same thing over and over again. Like, God already heard me. Surely He’s getting annoyed that I keep talking to Him about the same thing over and over again. But that isn’t true.

In Luke 11:5-8, Jesus tells a parable that explains how prayer should work: be persistent until your prayer is answered.

Jesus said to them, “If one of you has a friend and goes to him in the night and says, ‘Friend, give me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine is on a trip and has stopped at my house. I have no food to give him.’ The man inside the house will say, ‘Do not trouble me. The door is shut. My children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you bread.’ I say to you, he may not get up and give him bread because he is a friend. Yet, if he keeps on asking, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

Luke 11:5-8

In my Bible next to this parable I wrote: shameless persistence.

See, the man in the house doesn’t get up because he’s friends with you. He gets up because you bug him enough that he gives in. Shameless persistence.

The verses after explain that as we persist in prayer, we should progress in intensity.

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Luke 11:9-10

Ask: Verbalize your requests to God
Seek: Continue approaching God, as if you’re looking for something you’ve lost.
Knock: Persist until the door is open. Keep praying. Pray more intensely and aggressively.

Wow. This parable totally debunks the myth that we only need to pray once for something! Yes, God knows the need, but He wants us to continue approaching Him for it. He WANTS to give us things, but He also wants us to ASK him for it.

So I’m doing it. I have things I’ve been praying for years and I haven’t seen any results, so I kind of backed off on those prayers. Not anymore. I’m bringing them before God again, and I’m not feeling guilty that I keep praying the same thing again and again. I want to be shamelessly persistent, even if it doesn’t feel like it’s doing any good, so I can see those prayers answered!