When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
Matthew 6:5-8
This is one of the best pieces of advice I have received about prayer: Keep it Simple, Keep it Real and Keep It Up.
No matter how simple our prayers are or how real we are with our heavenly Father, Jesus also invites us, with the use of a challenging parable in Luke 18, to pray and never give up. (An in depth look coming next week!)
But how do we do this when our initial passion and zeal fades and God doesn’t seem to be answering or even listening? Day after day, week after week and even year after year we ask God for a breakthrough. For healing and wholeness in our family, provision when we are lacking the basics, health when our body is failing. We pray the same thing over and over again, until suddenly, the breakthrough arrives, the miracle happens. It’s not that we finally found the right formula and it may not have even happened in the way we asked but it is simply that we didn’t give up praying one prayer too soon.
I have found it true in my life that this most important factor in "keeping it up" is developing a discipline of the daily. The active setting some quiet time aside. If I fail to plan this in my day life just gets in the way and it always will. This is an active ritual that was even practiced by Jesus. He even invited his friends, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” (Mark 6:31 NLT). So I invite you to follow Jesus' example and millions of his followers, ever since, to allocate a little time each day to come aside to a quiet place with Jesus.
PRAY: Father, thank you that you do hear my prayers, you may not answer when I would like or how I would like, but you do answer. Please give me the strength to 'keep it up' in prayer and help me to remember that every single prayer is heard by you and never a waste. Amen
Today's contributor: Adrian Peterson
