How Do I Persist in Prayer?

Sometimes life feels like a race.

We have dreams we want to see happen and visions we want to accomplish, but it takes a lot of energy to keep running toward them. When we get tired, we start to think, I’m not going to make it. How bad would it be to stop now?

God knows how hard it can be for us to keep trying and keep believing. He doesn’t ask us to be perfect, or to burn ourselves out, or to fake it till we make it. He just asks us not to give up on our faith.

May we never tire of doing what is good and right before our Lord because in His season we shall bring in a great harvest if we can just persist.

Galatians 6:9 Voice

Running the race of life on our own gets exhausting because it’s difficult for us to see hope on the other side of obstacles. God wants to bring a “great harvest” of joy, love, contentment, and vision into our lives. We don’t have to have any special talent or skill to get it–all we need to do is just persist.

But what do you do when it’s hard to keep trying? How do you keep fighting through uphill battles and unfair obstacles? In Luke 18, Jesus gives us a parable of a woman who keeps going even when life gives her reasons not to. She can teach us how to humbly ask God for the help we need, and persistently believe that he will answer us when we pray.

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. [2] “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. [3] A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ [4] The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, [5] but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

Luke 18:1-5 NLT

The woman in Jesus’ story continued to persist even when hope seemed impossible. She was humble enough to express need, and faithful enough to keep fighting. When we bring this humility and trust into our prayers, we will be able to keep persisting until we see God move. Listen to this Mini Quiet Time about how to keep persisting in prayer.