Pray A Lot! Series

Don Young, of Bern, Kansas, talks about a time when his oldest daughter was old enough to understand what saving money was all about. His wife and he sat down with her and explained the value of money. They explained how you save, and when the piggybank was full, you take the money out and deposit it in the bank so that it might draw interest.

They thought they had done a thorough job. She seemed to understand and couldn't wait to open a savings account in their local bank by herself. Don called the banker in their little town and told him their daughter was on the way to open her savings account. They would stop in later and sign the necessary papers.

What a thrill! She got the president of the bank himself to wait on her. She handed over her savings, and he gave her a receipt and thanked her for her business. But she wouldn't leave. She just stood there like she was waiting on something else. “Is there anything else that I can help you with?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, “I want my interest.” (Don Young, Sr., Bern, Kansas; www.PreachingToday.com)

Isn’t that like a lot of people? They want their “interest” now! They want what they want immediately, but that’s not the way life works. That’s not even the way prayer works. God surely answers prayer, but He does it in His time and in His way.

So how do you get what you need from God? How do you receive good gifts from your Heavenly Father? How do you obtain the treasures for which you seek? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 7, Matthew 7, where Jesus tells you how to receive what you need from your loving Heavenly Father.

Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (ESV)

Jesus couldn’t be more clear. If you want to receive good gifts from God, just ask, just seek, just knock.

You ask for what you wish. You seek for what you miss, and you knock for what’s closed to you, but you don’t do it just once. The original language suggests that you keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking. In other words, if you want to receive precious treasure from your generous Heavenly Father...

PRAY WITH PERSISTENCE.

Continue in prayer. Persevere in your supplications. Keep on coming to God’s Mercy Seat to receive help in your time of need.

First of all, Jesus said, “Keep on asking.” Keep on presenting your urgent requests, and don’t give up until you receive what you ask for.

Tim Keller, the recently retired pastor of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, says he discovered prayer in the second half of his adult life. He says, “I had to.” In the fall of 1999, he was teaching the Psalms, and it became clear to him that he was “barely scratching the surface of what the Bible commanded and promised regarding prayer.” Then came the dark weeks in New York after 9/11, when the whole city sank into a kind of corporate clinical depression, even as it rallied. Keller says the shadow was intensified as his wife, Kathy, struggled with the effects of Crohn's disease. Then he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

At one point during all this, Kathy urged him to do something with her they had never been able to do regularly before. She asked him to pray with her every night. Every night! Then she used an illustration that crystallized her feelings. She said:

“Imagine you were diagnosed with such a lethal condition that the doctor told you that you would die within hours unless you took a particular medicine—a pill every night before going to sleep. Imagine that you were told that you could never miss it or you would die. Would you forget? Would you not get around to it some nights? No—it would be so crucial that you wouldn't forget, you would never miss. Well, if we don't pray together to God,” Kathy said, “we're not going to make it because of all we are facing. I'm certainly not. We have to pray, we can't let it just slip our minds” (Tim Keller, Prayer, Penguin Group, 2014, pp. 9-10; www.PreachingToday.com)

Do you know? She’s right! We HAVE to pray. We can’t let it just slip our minds. We HAVE to pray all the time to make it through these dangerous and challenging times. Do you want to receive what you need from God? Jesus said, “Keep on asking.”