The Insanity of Praying

One night, I was on my knees, praying for God to help me with a difficult situation. As I knelt there, making the same request for what seemed like the millionth time, I wondered if it wasn’t insane. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. By that definition, isn’t praying for the same thing repeatedly and hoping for a different result insane?

What is the point of asking God for the same thing over and over? He doesn’t have a flaky memory that He would forget. Asking Him once ought to be enough right? It seemed crazy to pray persistently, but Jesus commanded us to do it.

In Luke 11, the disciples asked Jesus how they should pray, and He taught them the Lord’s prayer. Afterward, He gave them a parable to teach them to pray persistently.

In this parable, a man needed food for visitors coming to see him, so he went to his friend’s house at midnight and asked him for some bread. The friend sent the man back on his way because it was late. Notwithstanding, the man insisted, and the friend eventually helped him. The friend did not help because of their friendship, but because of the man’s persistence.

Also, in Luke 18, Jesus gave another parable to illustrate the need for praying persistently. In this parable, a widow went to see a judge and asked him for justice from her adversary. The judge refused at first, but because she wouldn’t stop begging him, he yielded and avenged her.

Both parables teach that we can boldly approach God with our requests, and then persistently ask Him for help. Caution though, it doesn’t say that if we ask long enough, God will give us whatever we want.

When I first read that passage, I was reticent to pray persistently. I thought I would bother God just like the man bothered his friend in the first parable. It didn’t make sense to me to keep asking God if he heard me the first time. Furthermore, God is not a fickle being that He can change His mind. His no means no.

Even though I didn’t quite understand why God would want me to keep pestering Him with my requests, I decided to obey and pray persistently. There were days I didn’t believe God will ever answer my prayers, some days, I felt stupid for repeatedly asking, and other days I just wanted to quit.

Nevertheless, I kept on praying. It has been almost a year since I began to pray persistently. While none of the things I prayed for has come to pass, I realized five benefits it did for me.

1. It revealed my heart desires

When I first decided to pray persistently for my heart’s desires, I noticed that my list of requests changed over time. We tend to believe that we know what we want or need, but in reality, only God truly does.

I had things I prayed for and believed I wanted, even required. However, as I submitted myself to God in prayer, He started aligning my heart with His and also exchanged my desires for His desires (Psalm 37:4).

Those things I thought I wanted, slowly faded away from my heart. It was only when I reviewed my journal that I noticed that I stopped praying for those things. It made me realize I didn’t need them after all.

2. It attacked my pride

After repeatedly praying for the same things for a little while, I became frustrated and decided to quit. I thought if God wanted to help me, He would have done so by now. I was humiliating myself, asking, sometimes even begging Him for help. It would be better to depend on me.

As I thought these things, the Spirit convicted of being prideful. I realized then that all these reasons I had to quit were just excuses to indulge in my pride and self-sufficiency.

Here is the thing, prayer and arrogance don’t go well together. It is so because praying is a humbling experience; it is acknowledging you need God and can’t go through life without Him. When I prayed persistently, it humbled me, made me let go of my pride and self-dependence, and taught me to depend on God instead.

3. It taught me patience

While we are obsessed with doing things faster, God is not. On the contrary, God takes His time. There is even a saying that states God’s middle name is time. Praying persistently didn’t make God hurry, but it taught me to wait on Him.

When God made me wait, I learned to accept it and to be patient. As I kept coming back again and again, I built up and developed patience, which consequently matured me.

4. It kept me in communication with God

Before I was saved (and a little bit after), my prayer life consisted of giving my requests to God. If I didn’t need anything, then I didn’t pray. But praying is not all about supplications, though. It is also a time to connect intimately with God, to draw closer to Him, and to seek His face.

I began to feel guilty of treating God like a genie, so I tried to include other elements in my prayers, such as thanksgiving, praise, forgiveness, or just plain conversations. After some time, I eventually grew to love my quiet time with the Lord. Persistently asking for a request made me have a prayer life, but now, His presence is enough to drive me to my knees.

5. It gave me hope and peace

For most of last year until now, I have been fighting depression, and resisting the temptation to believe nothing would ever get better. When I prayed and asked God for help, I felt Him telling me He was with me, and that with Him, all things were possible. I remembered that there was no mountain He couldn’t move, no giant He couldn’t defeat.

Each time I prayed, God didn’t give me what I asked, but He reminded me to have hope and trust in Him. He took my fears, anxiety, and worries and gave me peace instead.

And He told them a parable tot he effect that they ought to always pray and not lose heart.

Luke 18:1

I didn’t understand the blessing of praying persistently because I focused on getting what I wanted. I never noticed I received what I needed. It’s no wonder there are many verses on praying continuously (Romans 12:12, Philippians 4:6, Colossians 4:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 ), and why Jesus taught us to pray without losing heart.

Prayer is an essential discipline that God gave us for our good. It may look insane to pray repeatedly and expect something different each time, but then, believing in a God who loves us so much He died for us also sounds crazy.

God’s wisdom is different from man’s wisdom (James 3:13-17) and sometimes doesn’t make sense, but trusting God means letting go of our understanding.

Therefore friend, be patient and do your best, pray persistently and let God do the rest.

 Grace and peace to you!