Praying With Persistence

b. What can really encourage you is to know that support is on its way when you pray! And if you pray believing that God’s sending support, it makes it much easier to hang in there in your prayer life!

ILLUS: In 1957, at Johns Hopkins, Curt P. Richter experimented with drowning rats. He put rats in a dish of water, with sides too high for climbing, and water too deep for standing. All the rats could do was swim. After a few minutes, the rats would stop swimming and drown. But if Richter removed a rat from the dish when it stopped swimming (but before it actually drowned), and later subjected it to the same experiment, he found that the rat could swim for more than 24 hours.

-The rats that drowned after a few minutes could swim for much longer. They simply gave up because they saw no hope. People need hope, too, for the same reason that rats do. Even the best lives have hard times, and the worst lives can be almost unbearably painful. Hope keeps us going when times are hard.

-But when we know the cavalry is coming it makes it easier for us to hang in there. I want you to know that when you pray, support is coming!

Reit: The 1st step we can take to pray w/persistence is to remove distractions. The 2nd step is to understand support comes w/prayer. And the final step we can take to pray w/persistence is to:

DIV. 3: TRUST GOD WILL ANSWER YOUR PRAYERS (vv. 12-14)

Exp: Trust is a very difficult thing for a lot of people. And sometimes we lose our trust, our faith in God when we feel like our prayers aren’t being answered. Ted Turner, the media magnate and I WISH still the owner of the Braves, is a man who does not have a relationship w/Christ. He turned away from God when his mother died b/c he said he prayed for her but she died anyway. And that was the last straw for him. Some of you may have some similar experiences and it’s caused you to doubt and even NOT believe that theirs is a God who is there for you.

A. Now we can get into why bad things happen to people. But we’ll save that one for another day. The quick answer is b/c we live in a world that’s marred by sin (which we willfully commit). And it was never God’s intention for us to live in separation from Him. But we chose to do so and now we live w/the consequences.

1. So the big question for today is “If I pray, will God not only hear me, but will He answer my prayers?” The answer to that question is “Yes.” I look at Daniel and I see that he called out to God for answers. And what I notice is that the answer was delayed! It didn’t come immediately. Do you remember how long Daniel had been praying before he received an answer? 21 days!

a. I’d have to say that it’s my tendency to give up on something after just a few days if I don’t get any results! But Daniel hung in there and continued to seek after God. Why? B/c he believed God was going to answer him! He was persistent in his prayers and God rewarded him for it!

b. Do we need to be persistent in our prayers b/c God’s hard of hearing? Is it b/c God has to be pestered before He’ll provide an answer? No! Jesus taught us to pray w/persistence b/c each time we pray our prayers carry weight!