Effective and Consistent Prayer

 What keeps you from praying? Is it because it feels like the thing you have continually brought to the Lord is not being answered? Or maybe it is because all you hear from God is a big nothing? Or it could be because although we know it is important and holds a lot of power, we just haven’t seen or felt that recently, so what is the point?

I have felt all of these things at one time or another. More often for me, my reasons for not praying is because I don’t want to allow God into whatever I am thinking or feeling about a given circumstance, or I feel unheard. Recently I wrote a post about the importance of prayer. I have seen how important prayer is, but I have also felt the sting of seemingly unanswered prayers. I have felt in times past that prayer wasn’t as powerful or as effective for me as I saw it was for others. That is what I want to talk about here.

I have been reading through the Gospels each month here at the beginning of the year. What I love so much about this is you see the different perspectives and writing styles of the writers. You see what they focus on, and there is something so refreshing about reading the same things back to back each month. Last month as I was reading in Mark, these verses stuck out to me.

Luke 18:1-8 (CSB): Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain town who didn’t fear God or respect people. 3 And a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or respect people, 5 yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice so that she doesn’t wear me out by her persistent coming.’” 6 Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 Will not God grant justice to His elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay helping them? 8 I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

The part that got my attention was His reasons for telling the parable. He told them the parable so they would see the need for them to pray and not give up. I related to that deeply. How many times do I have good intentions of praying for someone or a situation, but when I feel like I have prayed and prayed but nothing seems to change or happen, I give up? More than I would like to admit.

What gets in the way of effective and consistent prayer? Why do we so often give up and lose heart? Obstacles often get in our way, and Jesus knew we needed to be taught and encouraged to be constant but also effective in our prayers.

Prayer is hard work, and we often approach it with too light of an approach. In this parable, we see a woman continually returning to the judge for justice. He grants it to her because he saw the woman would continually persist until she received the justice she wished to receive. I believe we can get discouraged when it feels like what we have been bringing to God is not changing or it feels like He is not working in the situation. I understand this. But we need to remember His timing is perfect, and so many times the way He answers our prayers are not in the ways we would expect. That can be a difficult truth to face. When we are able to trust who God says He is, and trust in His character and what He has done in the past, it becomes a bit easier to continually bring what we are asking with open hands and trust that He knows what is best. That doesn’t mean we never get discouraged or want to give up, it just means when we feel those things we bring that to Him as well. He will hold us up in those moments, and give us the strength to continue.

Another thing we need to remember is that prayer is powerful, and the Devil does not like that much at all. We should not be surprised to face resistance when we pray. I also think we forget the power of prayer. Too often prayer is our last resort instead of our first resource.

In the last month, God has been moving and working in some aspects of my life, but not in ways that I expected. I had a friend point out to me that we have been praying for God to move and work in these areas, and though it may not look the way we imagined, does not mean it isn’t an answer to prayer. That can be difficult to sit with, but I am certain that there are times we miss answers to prayer because we only expect it to be a certain way.

The God we serve is kind, He is just, and He is good. He is faithful to what He says He will do. He cares about our situations and desires to work in and through them. Often that means continually showing up in prayer about what is going on in our lives and surrendering what we think should happen to Him. It means being patient even when it feels like He is silent, trusting that He is working and does deeply care about our circumstances. Beauty does come out of those difficult and painful seasons, even if we don’t see that right here or right now. Be vulnerable with God. Be willing to surrender to Him. He is faithful, you only need to trust Him.

“Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.” 
– Corrie Ten Boom