"Jesus told them a parable to show them that they should always pray and not lose heart, saying: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about people. In that town, there was a widow who kept coming to him with the plea: 'Grant me justice against my adversary!' For some time, he refused. But finally, he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about people, because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me.’” Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says! And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?” (Luke 18:1-7*).
We, humans, do not like complicated things. We want to follow a few steps and achieve the desired result. However, prayer cannot be reduced to such a simple formula. It is not an activity where repeating certain words leads to the desired outcome. Prayer is constant communication with our Heavenly Father and involves listening, speaking, and acting according to what we have heard from Him.
The Lord has promised to answer the prayers of His children. However, He often delays before answering. The reasons for this vary:
Preparation
- Sometimes God needs to prepare us for what He wants to give us. Perhaps our attitude or behavior does not align with His will (see James 4:3).
Spiritual Growth
- The Lord may delay His response to test our faith or deepen our relationship with Him.
Appropriate Timing
- God's timing often does not match ours. God knows what He wants to achieve in us and through us. He has included delay as part of a believer's prayer life. In some cases, like the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8, we must continue knocking until the Lord gives us His answer.
Christ calls us to a life of "asking, seeking, and knocking" – a life of trust in God's promise that He hears His children.
Link to the original article: https://www.intouchuk.org/read/daily-devotions/learning-to-pray-gods-way
* Biblical quotes are from Bible, New Translation from the Original Languages © Bulgarian Bible Society 2013