Does Your Life Reveal the Power of Persistent Prayer?

When I read the readings today, it reminded me that God calls us to lives of persistent prayer. He wants us to ask for the things we want and need.

Does your life reveal the power of persistent prayer? 

If I look honestly at my own life, there’s no question it does. Some of the good things I’ve desired in life have taken years of praying to get. I’m also confident that through persistent prayer, I’ve been given other blessings that I haven’t even asked for.

Persistent prayer is hard. It’s hard to pray day in and day out for years and still not have it, especially those deep desires of the heart. There’s a tendency to lose hope and stop praying, and sadly, to stop believing that God delivers.

I’ve prayed for a child for about 10 years with no fruitful outcome yet. There are days I want to throw in the towel and stop praying for it, but I don’t because the Holy Spirit living in me prays through me, and I know that God does deliver eventually. My life has revealed that to me.

For example, there were years I prayed for a specific healing of a behavior in my life. Recently, I realized I had been mostly healed of it, without any real effort of my own and just by God’s mysterious grace. Meanwhile, my husband and I prayed not long for a home and were given one surprisingly more quickly than we ever expected.

We just don’t know why God answers some prayers quickly and not so quickly. Prayers have never been answered in the way I expect, but they are answered mysteriously and unexpectedly by a God and Father who wants to give us good gifts. So keep praying persistently, and may your life reveal the power of persistent prayer.