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Persistent Prayer
by Faith Marsalli July 7, 2002

Luke 11: 9-10: "So I tell you, continue to search, and you will find. Continue to knock, and the door will open for you. Yes, if a person continues asking, he will receive. If he continues searching, he will find. And if he continues knocking, the door will open for him."

Matthew 7: 7-10: "Continue to ask, and God will give to you. Continue to search, and you will find. Continue to knock, and the door will open for you. Yes, everyone who continues asking will receive. He who continues searching will find. And he who continues knocking will have the door opened for him. What would you do if your son asks for bread? Which of you would give him a stone? Or if your son asks for a fish, would you give him a snake? Even though you are bad, you know how to give good gifts to your childre. So surely your heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask him."

Last Sunday, during the first moments of our unprogrammed meeting for worship, the silence was broken by the eager toddler footsteps of Kenneth Crowell running up the ramp. It was delightful, really, as he ran into church clearly happy to have arrived in a familiar, safe, and loving place.

Immediately the thought came to me, "Do I have this same eagerness to be in the presence of Christ? Do I make it may habit to run with a trusting and expectant heart to that familiar, safe and loving place?"

The words Jesus speaks here in the gospel account portray a God of relationship. A God who lovingly responds to the cries of our hearts. Who receives us when we come running to him. Who pursues us and wants us to know we are loved more than we can imagine.

If we're honest though, there are times when we might wonder if this is so, that our prayers really don't seem to make a bit of difference. Based on our own circumstances or in what we observe around us, we sometimes might doubt whether there is a God who is loving and responsive to our needs.

Let me share with you some thoughts I have had as I have meditated on this passage over this past week.

I thought it was amazing when I first read these verses on Monday how timely these words were for me. They were exactly what I needed to hear at that particular moment in time. It struck me once again how this is one of the ways I experience a personal relationship with God. God knows me intimately and always gives me what I need. This time I just happened to be aware of this fact and I received it gratefully, but often I just don't recognize it, even when it is right in front of me.

Jesus admonishes me to pray confidently using three metaphors: Ask--Seek--Knock. Jesus urges me to persist in prayer. Jesus encourages me to persist in bringing my needs to God, reminding me that it is always in God's nature to respond.

But most of us want immediate gratification. We want instant answers. We want immediate relief from discomfort. We want spiritual fast food. We want to drive up, place our order and pick it up at the window. We don't like waiting. Jesus doesn't say, "Ask, and you will immediately get what you ask for, or search and you will immediately find what you are seeking, or knock and the door will immediately open."

Maybe there is some religious abuse in your past. Someone once told you, "You just don't have enough faith. If you had more faith things would be different in your life. If you just had more faith God would heal you physically, emotionally and spiritually." Baloney!

The words of Jesus offer to us the assurance that, yes, ours is a God who gives, opens, and allows us to find, but not on our time table or perhaps in the way we expect. Prayer is not a blank check on which we write anything our hearts desire. God always answers our prayer but we are not guaranteed whatever we request.

And do you know why I think this is true? Because I don't think we know what we need most of the time. We might think we do, but we really don't. We usually end up asking for all the wrong things. We end up choking on stones when God wants to give us nourishing bread. God knows what we need. But we have the tendency to run everywhere else but to the only One who can truly meet our needs and satisfy our deepest longings.

So how do we discern what we really need?

I'm convinced that the process of asking, seeking and knocking involves waiting, listening and lots of reflection. Persisting in prayer takes time because it is never easy for us to lay aside our own agenda and ask, "What is God's will that I receive in the situation?" We have to quiet our own thoughts down or we won't hear that still small voice speaking to us.

Let me try to give you some practical ways to do this:

1. First, begin by asking God to help you identify what you really need. Make this a daily habit, because it takes a lot of practice. I may want something to happen in a particular way but it may not be what I really need. You may want to be delivered from some financial hardship for instance, but God knows that you really need to learn to be more responsible with your time and money. Or you may be in a difficult relationship with a spouse, a friend, a child, a parent, a boss and you would just like them to shape up but God is more interested in working on you. God knows you need to learn to be a more loving, patient, committed person.

2. Then move into the seeking and searching phase. Sit with whatever your discomfort might be. Learn to live in the the tension of an unresolved problem. This is really hard for me. Don't just pray for the easy way out of the difficulty. Seek to know what God wants to teach you, ways you need to grow and develop. This is the place where we begin to lay aside our own will and search for God's will for us. This may involve Bible and devotional reading, or journaling, or seeking some accountability with trusted companions who are on the journey with us. This is for me the arduous process of moving toward surrender.

3. Lastly, after you have spent time waiting, listening and reflecting on what you've discovered in your seeking, go ahead and know on that door again. Persist in prayer. But relinquish control to God. Stop trying to force the door open on your own. And then believe that God has answered and responded in exactly the way that you need even if it isn't evident to you yet. Trust in the loving responsive nature of God.

I'll conclude with this little meditation.

Close your eyes and allow yourself to be taken to some beautiful lakeshore.

You are walking barefoot across a beach. You are feeling lost and confused. You are feeling worried and anxious about a number of things. The sun is hot. The sand burns your feet. Up ahead, beyond the place where the waves lap the shore, a wooden boat floats. The boat is painted the color of the sky. There are no oars, no motor, and you know the boat only waits for you. You step into the water, wade up to your knees, then halfway to your waist. The boat rocks with the breeze. You touch its wooden side, hike yourself up, fall into its bow, then right yourself in its middle seat. All your anxiety and worry are at the shoreline. You shiver in anticipation. God is there. God is in control. You are exactly where you need to be. And it is only from this view that you clearly see what you need to do next. You sit there quietly, calm, trusting, and at perfect peace.

Faith Marsalli, July 7, 2002