28.03.25 Luke 18:1-8

Prepare

Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us! Heal our wounds, give us sight, and gift us with faith in you afresh.

Read

Luke 18:1-8

Reflect

Let’s remind ourselves of that first verse: Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Persistence in prayer is no easy thing. Famously, a preacher in the 19th century called D. L. Moody prayed for 100 people he knew who didn’t know Jesus, to come to faith in him. Across his life he saw 96 of those people come to faith in Jesus, the remaining 4 did so at his funeral. An amazing example of persistence in prayer!

Inspired by this, I set out to do the same. About 8 years ago I made a list that I slowly added to and eventually, it totalled just over 100 of my family, friends and people I’d met. I prayed for them daily for around 3 years, but I began lose steam. Daily become most days. Most days became most weeks. Praying for all 100 became praying for sections each day. Eventually I stopped using that prayer list.

In hindsight I think I made 2 key errors. I created the prayer list out of a sense of both excitement and duty. I didn’t spend time seeking the Father’s heart in it – although well intentioned I set out on my own, rather than really following the lead of God. Secondly, I gave up. None of the people I had been praying for had become Christians so I considered it a failure. Perhaps not surprising I hadn’t been prayerful enough to begin with. But perhaps there is hope, after reflecting on prayer over this season I feel moved to start again. To start small, and to start waiting on God rather than going off by myself. I hope my mistakes can help you to learn! Let’s spend time making sure we’re praying as our Father calls us, and then take heart and follow him until he leads elsewhere.

Be

Is there a prayer you have become tired of praying? Let’s spend a few moments of stillness giving it over to God again. Maybe he wants you to pause, change, or lead elsewhere. Maybe you need him to strengthen and encourage you again. Let’s spend a moment praying and receiving for our own prayer life.

Become

Let’s use a repeated prayer to ask God to help us be persistent in our prayer.

Lord, teach me to pray with persistence.
Help me never to lose heart.

Do

Maybe there’s something you’ve been praying into for a long time. Maybe there’s something you’d like to pray into. Maybe there’s something you’re struggling to let go of stopping you from persisting in other areas. Let’s pray to our Father to help us.

Practice

Persistence could be days, weeks, months, years, even a lifetime. I think it’s less important how long we persist for and how we persist. How could you persist with God today?