The Persistence in Prayer

Matthew 7:7- In the Sermon on the mount, Jesus is explaining the process of prayer.

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.” Real prayer changes the person praying.

Time spent with God in prayer changes the heart and attitude of the person. His inward prayer changes his facial tone. There is a phrase that says, “the skin of their faces shone.” This means being with God for so long; they have developed a face of confidence in the faith and answered prayer.

This phrase is taken from Exodus 34: 29,30: “And it came to pass , when Moses came down from Mt Sinai, with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.” Sometimes, it is not possible to receive God’s answer to prayer within 30 seconds.

There maybe a need to linger in his presence before a request is granted. That may be the reason the Savior divided prayer into three categories. First is asking. Asking is petitioning. Seeking is persistence. Knocking means perseverance. If you don’t get an answer at first, try again.

God likes to know his children mean business. A casual prayer sometimes only reaches the ceiling. A man or woman who is convinced they are praying in God’s Will will not cease prayer until God answers. In this type of prayer, God may deal with a person with the request if they are living right and worthy of asking. We quickly tell others; I will pray for you, but never do. This has become part of polite social conversation.