First let's look at persistence. A life of constant and persistent prayer will be the life of someone that grows up in maturity and authority in the kingdom. Why is it that some people have walked with God for 30 years and are still babes in Christ? It is because they never got disciplined and consistent in their walk with God. If you have a gift to give away and two people are waiting on the gift and one of them finds something else to do and walks away, who are you going to give the gift to when you are ready to bestow it? You are going to give it to the one that is still there waiting upon the gift. It was persistence that caused them to triumph and prevail.
It takes laying aside some things to stay in persistent prayer. It takes faith to stay in persistent prayer. It takes character to stay in persistent prayer. It takes faithfulness to stay in persistent prayer. It takes maturity to stay in persistent prayer. The bible tells the story of a man who had company at midnight. We are all familiar with the passage of Scripture where the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Jesus gave them the Lord's prayer as an example and most of us can quote that prayer from memory. There have been many great teachings on the LORD's prayer and the model that Jesus gave to his disciples to teach them how to pray. But, in the Scripture Jesus did not end his teaching to them about prayer with the Lord's prayer. He goes on to give them a parable to help them understand some of the challenges they would face in prayer. The Lord's prayer is Luke 11:1-4, but look at verses 5-8 in the book of Luke.
5And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
6For a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
7And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give you.
8I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give to him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
First we see a man in need, and second we see a friend. Though he was a friend, he did not want to answer his door at midnight. He told the man in need, NO, GO AWAY...the door is closed. That is the same thing as you and I saying, "who in the world is knocking on my door at midnight?" Jesus said the neighbor would not give him what he wanted just because he was a friend. I may not answer my door at midnight just because you are my friend, but if you keep knocking and knocking on it, I will get up and answer the door because of your importunity. And God admires the importune person, they receive more from God than the person who doesn't want to make a scene.
This may shock you that God admires the importune person. I KNOW you are a friend to God. I KNOW God is a friend to you. Do not assume that your prayers are going to be answered because God is your friend. You are going to have to count on something else besides friendship with God to see heaven move and respond to your prayers. People mis-understand this all the time. They pray, and because God loves them, and is a friend to them they expect to get what they prayed for. I have heard people say, "If God loves me, than why didn't he answer my prayers?" Jesus plainly says in this parable that just like this neighbor's friend who would not meet his request because He is a friend, so God does not answer our prayers just because we are his FRIENDS. Just because you KNOW God and HE KNOWS you does not mean your prayers are going to be answered. People lose heart and give up on prayer because they pray, and then they get offended if God doesn't just jump instantly and wait on them. Don't you love your kids? Of course you do. Do you jump and give them everything they ask for just because they are your kids, or just cause they asked? No. But, If they bug you enough, you will get them what they want. Jesus is saying in the parable this is the way it is with God as well.
So how do you get your prayers answered? We get our prayers answered because of importunity. Importunity means making a repeated or annoying request, being troublesomely urgent in your request. In other words, in means bugging someone to death until they give you what you asked for. Now don't forget that God's ways are different than our ways. God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. You see for us as humans, we don't like people who bug us to death. We don't like people who ask us over and over again for the same thing. What you have to understand about God is that he admires people that bug him to death. He admires people that ask him over and over again until they get the answer they were needing in prayer. Why does he love this? He loves this because it expresses our faith in Him. God admires the persistent person.
No matter what you are praying for, God is usually going to wait until you get to a place of importunity before he is going to answer your prayer. When he sees you rise up, day after day, night after night requesting what you want, despising discouragement and shaking off complacency He admires your faith and your persistence. He will answer your prayer because of your persistence. We spoil our kids when we give them everything they want, right when they want it. And God does not spoil us, he expects us to be persistent, faithful, determined and growing in prayer.
Learn to be persistent in prayer. God does not despise your continual coming to him in prayer about the same things over and over again. I hear people say all the time, "I don't like praying the same things over and over." God expects you to keep praying the same prayer until it is answered, just like in this parable. If He hasn't answered your prayer, knock twice as long on Heaven's door tomorrow. He admires it, and you will receive.
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