How to Be Persistent in Prayer
By Whitney Hopler
“Be persistent in prayer, and keep alert as you pray, giving thanks to God.” – Colossians 4:2 GNT
Have you been praying for something important for a long time yet still haven’t seen a response from God? God calls us to persistent prayer. However, that can sometimes be quite challenging to do. The longer we have to wait for God’s answers to our prayers, the more we can be tempted to give up.
I once prayed about the same issue regularly for 23 long years! Every day, I would pray about my mom, asking God to give her faith in him. But Mom kept resisting a relationship with God. It became discouraging and frustrating for me to see the lack of progress. Still, I persisted in praying for Mom’s salvation, even as doubt crept into my own faith. When, I wondered, would God do something to wake Mom up to his love for her? Was I a fool for continuing to pray for something that might never happen?
Then God surprised me with an answer that was definitely worth waiting for. He sent one of his messengers, an angel, to visit Mom while she was hospitalized with leukemia. The angel appeared in heavenly glory, capturing Mom’s attention. “She was so beautiful,” Mom told me. “She was lit from within with a very powerful light that didn’t hurt my eyes when I looked at her. And those wings! Such intricate designs, like ripples of white, cream, and chestnut brown that matched her brown hair. The angel raised her hands and started gesturing toward me like this,” she demonstrated, moving her hands gracefully back and forth in a circular sweeping motion. “And then she sent me something that looked like oval-shaped bits of energy. The outlines of the ovals were like glowing gold, and the insides were transparent.” Mom finished the story of her wondrous encounter with the angel and concluded: “I can tell you now, I’m a true believer for sure!”
Medical tests after the angel’s visit showed that Mom had gone into remission from cancer, much to her doctors’ surprise. But the greatest gift of all was the change in Mom’s soul. She finally believed in God, and in God’s love for her. Finally, Mom began to seek God, and she had just enough time to place her trust in God and grow close to him before she passed away several months later from an infection.
God sent his answer to my persistent prayers only when Mom was ready to receive it. Not only did God have the best timing in mind, but he answered in such a wonderful way that it was beyond what I expected. As Ephesians 3:20 NIV says, God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine”. God will always answer our prayers. However, he may answer at different times and in different ways than we expect. Only God knows what is truly best in each situation we bring to him in prayer.
As we wait for God to answer our prayers, it’s important to keep praying and keep believing until the answer comes. Persistent prayer helps us learn how to trust God’s perfect timing. Just because we may not see immediate answers to our prayers doesn’t mean that God is not at work. In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus shares the parable of the persistent widow, teaching that God rewards persistent prayer. Luke 18:1 NIV says that Jesus told his disciples that parable “to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17 KJV exhorts us to: “Pray without ceasing.” Philippians 4:6-7 advises us not to be anxious about anything but to pray about everything, and God will then give us his peace. Our faith grows as we continue to seek God earnestly, believing that he hears and answers our prayers according to his divine wisdom.
When we persevere in prayer, we also position ourselves to experience a deeper connection with our Heavenly Father. Persistent prayer aligns our desires with God’s purposes. The more we spend time in prayer, the more our prayers are shaped by God’s priorities, leading us to seek what’s truly best for us. 1 John 5:14-15 NIV assures us: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.”
It can be challenging to be persistent in prayer, but it’s always worthwhile to do so!
Intersecting Faith and Life:
As you reflect on how to be persistent in prayer, consider these questions:
- What is one important issue you’ve been praying about lately? How are you trying to trust God while you’re waiting for him to answer your prayers about that?
- What are some specific ways you can seek encouragement while you’re praying persistently about something?
Further Reading:
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/tommaso79
Whitney Hopler helps people discover God's wonder and experience awe. She is the author of several books, including the nonfiction books Wake Up to Wonder and Wonder Through the Year: A Daily Devotional for Every Year, and the young adult novel Dream Factory. Whitney has served as an editor at leading media organizations, including Crosswalk.com, The Salvation Army USA’s national publications, and Dotdash.com (where she produced a popular channel on angels and miracles). She currently leads the communications work at George Mason University’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being. Connect with Whitney on her website at www.whitneyhopler.com, on Facebook, and on X/Twitter.
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