Incentives to Keep Praying (Part 2)

Keep on praying because perseverance in prayer is essential for success.

Suppose a man was changing a stage light, which is about 50 feet above the stage. Suppose somehow the ladder he was on fell but he managed to grab hold of the light fixture and not fall. Would I need to give a motivational speech to him on why he should persevere and hold on? Of course not! He is going to hold on and not give up because he recognizes that perseverance is essential to success. He has all the motivation he needs to persevere, to keep holding on.

In the same way, we need to keep on praying because we know that it is essential for success. By success, I meant success in accomplishing God’s purposes. We need to understand that we have no other options, no hope, no other recourse but to keep praying, no matter how long it takes to get an answer.

The woman in the story I shared yesterday with you was a widow, without money to bribe the judge, without a husband to speak up for her, and without influence to pressure the judge to do what is right. In essence, she was in a helpless situation, without any other source or recourse. Her only option was to keep asking the judge to help her; persevering was essential for success! She had no other alternatives.

Now the window in the story represents God’s people. We need to realize that we must, not should, but must persevere in prayer because we have no other source of hope or help. I do not think we will really pray and especially keep on praying until we come to the place of complete desperation and have no other plan or recourse. We need to get to a place like the patriarch Jacob did, when he wrestled with God. When his hip was dislocated, he had no leg to stand on, no strength of his own, all his self-reliance was gone. It was then that he held on and wouldn’t let go of God until he got the blessing. In his weakness he knew that perseverance was essential.

We also need to get to the place where we realize that we have no strength of our own, that no plan that we have will succeed, that God must come through. This will motivate us to keep praying, because we will understand that God answering our prayers is our only hope

...to be continued...