Persistence in Prayer

If creation and redemption of that creation is the act of love from the part of God, prayer and persistence of prayer is our response to the divine love of God. Certainly prayer in general presupposes many important elements such as, faith, humility, thanksgiving and adhering to the will of God. All our prayer in one way or other reflects our faith. Humility is the essence of prayer. We pray because God can and we cannot. Thanksgiving is our natural impulse while praying since every moment of our lives are gifted to us by God and all our history and past life reflect God’s love for us. What we most often fail to do is to pray in harmony with the will of God. We pray in the Our Father, ‘your will be done’ but pray honestly, ‘Please God, let my will be done’.

Persistence in prayer is not uncommon in Judaism. Shema is an example of persistent prayer. Jesus taught us to pray persistently. We have at least two instances in the gospels where Jesus teaching us this lesson. One such lesson is what we heard in today’s gospel. Another interesting passage is the persistent widow who pleads just decision from the judge in Luke Chapter 18. St. Paul teaches us ‘to continue to be steadfast in prayer’ and ‘pray without ceasing’.

Jesus not only taught us persistence in prayer, he practiced it in his own life. In the garden of Gethsemane, he knew that he is going to suffer and die, but he prayed persistently. He was strengthened by God. His prayer was heard by God, though his actual request was not answered by God.

Persistence in prayer brings out our discernment of the will of God. Ask! Knock! Seek! – All these commands are focusing on our discernment processes. We keep asking God because we want to know and feel it in our lives what God wants of us. We ask God because we want to know what God is asking us to do. We knock at his door because we want to feel God knocking at our doors. We continue to seek God because we want to feel God seeking for us, for our hearts. Persistence is a great form of prayer that brings us closer to God. Amen.