My third instalment on Why Pray?, which is inspired by Ray Stedman’s book, Talking with My Father, Jesus Teaches on Prayer.  Read his book, here.

 So, why pray? Because prayer is powerful.

 Prayer is powerful, in particular persistent prayer, which Ray writes, always stirs the heart of God. Prayer moves God to action.

In the parable of Luke 18:1-8, the story of the persistent widow, Ray writes that persistence was the key to this woman’s plan to get help,

The widow had a persecutor, someone who was harassing her, and she appealed for help. But the judge couldn’t care less. He was a godless judge who was utterly unmoved by her pleas, and nothing could reach him…..nevertheless, explained Jesus, she found a way to get to this unrighteous judge: She made life miserable for him! Day and night, she gave him no rest….until finally the judge was forced to act. To get rid of her he granted her request—and she got what she needed!

Unlike the unrighteous judge in this story, our loving heavenly Father is not unrighteous or uncaring. But like the widow, we too need to be persistent in our prayers. Our Father has a caring heart and is compassionate to all his children when they come to Him with their requests. We need to be persistent in prayer.

We are also reminded that there are three levels to prayer: we need to ASK (simply ask), we need to SEEK (it is a process, series of acts) & we need to KNOCK (involves time and is repetitive). Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-8 that, everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

“Now this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him.” 1 John 5:14-15

See Why Pray? – #2    and   Why Pray? – #1  and  Prayer Pilgrimage – working draft.