Just Stay There

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened’ Luke 11:9-10 [NIV]

There is so much to learn from the Lord’s Prayer. The third thing is the instruction that Jesus gave, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you’. The word “ask” is in the present continuous in the original. It means ask and keep on asking. That is all it means. Some people say you pray once and if you pray again about the same issue, it means you don’t have faith. I smile because I actually was indoctrinated that way. But the more I read my Bible personally, the more I saw that that doctrine is so not true. Even Jesus asked three times at the garden of Gethsemane, ‘Father, if it is your will, let this cup pass over me’. Did Jesus not have faith? God expects you and I to stay in that place of prayer, ask and keep on asking because ‘Ask ‘For everyone who asks receives; Seek because the one who seeks finds; Knock because the one who knocks, the door will be opened’. That is how God wants us to approach prayer – ask, seek, knock and stay there – be persistent. It can be hard I know. Sometimes it is very hard, I agree. Sometimes you just don’t feel like praying, I agree. So what do you do when you don’t feel like praying? Pray. There are only two times to pray – when you feel like praying and when you don’t feel like praying. When you feel like praying pray. And when you don’t feel like praying, pray anyway. God wants us to keep knocking. This leads us to the second thing, which is ‘shameless audacity’. ^‘I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need’ Luke 11:8 [NIV]. Have you seen a child knocking on a door when the child knows that his parents are behind that door? That child may not get a response initially but he will not leave, he will keep knocking. Why does the child keep knocking? Simple, if you don’t answer, you too will have no peace. The parents can come out and scold the child but they will open that door. This is the same thing that God wants from us. He wants us to keep knocking with shameless audacity. Which is what we do in God’s Favourite House, especially during the seasons of the God Will Do It Again Service. And when God answers, it is an avalanche of answered prayers.

Thought: ‘Give the Lord no rest until He completes His work…’ Isa.62:7

Prayer: Holy Spirit, teach me to tarry in the place of prayer, in Jesus Name.