Now more than ever, God is needing people to persevere in prayer. He wants you to courageously persevere like the widow Jesus described in Luke chapter 18 who prayed without fainting and refused to lose heart or give up. That widow didn’t have a loving, heavenly Father to turn to like we do when we pray. She was dealing with a wicked judge who neither feared God nor respected man, yet she kept coming to him and saying:
Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (verses 3-8)
In that last statement, Jesus reminds us that when we persevere in prayer we must do it in faith. Speaking the same words day after day in an empty ritualistic manner is nothing more than vain repetition and it is useless. True persevering prayer isn’t like that. It is as heartfelt the fiftieth time as it was the first time it was prayed and it’s always accompanied by a childlike confidence that expects God to do what He promised–no matter how long it takes.
That means when you pray perseveringly, you don’t get up off your knees, look at the situation and say, “Oh my, it doesn’t look like my prayer did any good. I guess I’d better pray again.”
No, every time you pray, believe your prayers changed things in the realm of the Spirit even if you cannot yet see evidence of those changes in the natural world. You must believe God heard you and went to work on your behalf. You must also understand there are forces of darkness working to hinder the answer to your prayer, and so you must be willing to stick with the process until you’ve prayed the answer all the way through.
Only one thing will give you this kind of tenacity: the Word of God.
To keep praying in faith in spite of all the adverse circumstances and negative reports that often come along, you must not only know what the Bible promises you, you must see a clear inner image of that promise being fulfilled. It must shine within you so brightly it chases away every shadow of doubt. That’s what enables you to persevere in prayer.
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