Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1
When my daughter was five years old, she wanted to make me her slave for life. “Daddy, would you please do this. Daddy, would you please do that.” I could have run ragged from sunup to sundown. But I figured something out somewhere along the line. While I was in the middle of granting one request, she had already forgotten what she asked for and was trying to get me to do something else.
I learned that if she really wanted something, she would ask me more than once. When she asked two or three times, it brought her request into sharp focus. And so I tried to respond to her requests with balance, kindness, and common sense.
Years ago, I read that great little book by E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer. I believe that was where I ran into the statement: “Prayer doesn’t change God; it changes us.” God doesn’t need our persistence to be talked into things. But our persistence helps to weld our will to His, and connects our faith to God’s inevitable answer.
God’s royal children don’t give up.
Dwight
PS. Why does God allow trouble in our lives? What is God doing with us? How does faith work? Why doesn’t hard work bring about the good life God desires for us, and what can we do instead? On 6/22/2019, in our Inner Wealth subscription, we’ll be looking at the big picture of faith and how all these things fit together.
