When we get an opportunity to pray, we can ask the Lord, “Do I pray for this one time, intercede until it is answered, or pray for a week, a month, a year?” God can tell you how long to carry a burden in prayer. In this blog, we will look at persevering in prayer.
Persevering prayer involves praying until your requests are answered or until God tells you to stop. The focus of your prayers may sometimes be for someone’s salvation, someone’s healing, or a restoration of a relationship. Someone once said that perseverance is when you shoot a gun and run out of ammunition and keep firing anyway. Now, in our prayers, we are not running out of ammunition, but we do “keep firing.” The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much or has a great effect (James 5:16).
Preparation
To persevere in prayer first requires preparation. We must come before God, eliminate distractions, and humble ourselves. We also need to repent of any known or unknown sins so that our prayers are not hindered. We can exalt God for who he is and come under his authority. Then, we have the spiritual authority to attack the enemy and continue to pray until God intervenes and answers the prayer. We need to quiet ourselves and listen to what God is saying. Then, we can pray in agreement with his will and declare Scriptures that demonstrate our prayers.
Perseverance
The second step in persevering prayer is persistence. The Oxford Language Dictionary defines persistence as the “firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.” We must continue in our prayers because it is certain that we will experience opposition from the enemy. He does not like to see Christians serious about doing God’s work, and he likes to obstruct our way to make us give up. However, Jesus has already defeated all the works of the enemy; we just need to walk in the victory Jesus has already won. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a saying, “Keep on, keeping on.” It meant continue to do what you are doing; don’t give up. The Bible tells us to “not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” Galatians 6:9 (NKJV)
Passion
This brings us to the third step in persevering prayer – Passion! Galatians 6:9 alludes to this. Do not lose heart. Be so sure of what God has called you to in prayer, who he is to you, and who you are in him that you cannot lose heart. Have the fullness of the Holy Spirit in you so that you are like Jacob, and you wrestle with God until he blesses you (and your prayers). Ask Jesus to give you the passion for the prayer request in front of you. Sometimes, we don’t feel like praying, but Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, can give us the desire, motivation, and passion to continue. Let your whole being be immersed in the prayer.
When we persevere in prayer, we carry a burden or request until God says to let it go. To persevere we need preparation, persistence, and passion. Only God can give us the strength to do that. When we persevere in prayer we are partnering with God. What a special privilege we have as Christians! We are in a battle, but we are on the winning side. So when you pray, “Keep on, keeping on.”
Tags: prayer, righteous, passion, perseverance, scriptures, preparation, intercession, requests, intercede, persistence
