PRAYING IS DIFFICULT

NOTES
for Men of Prayer, 5th October 2009

Luke 11: 1THEN HE was praying in a certain place; and when He stopped, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, [just] as John taught his disciples. 2And He said to them, When you pray, say: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done [held holy and revered] on earth as it is in heaven.
The first difficulty observed here, for some, is to adequately acknowledge the divine sovereignty of GOD,
4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us [who has offended us or done us wrong].
The second difficulty is to acknowledge our sinfulness, then to be ready to forgive others who have wronged us.

And bring us not into temptation but rescue us from evil.

The third difficulty is to be willing to avoid all appearance of evil.

5And He said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and will say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves [of bread],6For a friend of mine who is on a journey has just come, and I have nothing to put before him; 7And he from within will answer, Do not disturb me; the door is now closed, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and supply you [with anything]? 8I tell you, although he will not get up and supply him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shameless persistence and insistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. 9So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.

The fourth difficulty is to be persistent and insistent.

Luke 11:1. The Disciples (disciplined ones) were to receive a challenging lesson about the discipline of persistence and insistence in prayer in the story of ‘the friend at midnight’. The conclusion made by Jesus was that the friend did NOT respond to the plea for help out of friendship but rather “because of his shameless persistence and insistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs”.
The application made by Jesus was “So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking, and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking, and the door shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives …” etc.
(ask, ask, ask, ask, ad infinitum)
The word ‘insist’ from Latin is made up of ‘in’ meaning ‘into’ and ‘sistere’, to stand.
So, stand in there in a shameless way until …This is about the QUALITY of the prayer and the CHARACTER of the pray-er.
The word ‘persist’ from Latin consists of ‘per’ meaning ‘through’ and ‘sistere’ to stand. So stand in there right through the crisis. Don’t give up. See what Jesus said in Luke 18:1, “… do not turn coward – faint, lose heart and give up.”
Persist is to do with TIME.

INSIST : make a stand on something as essential.(The Concise Oxford Dictionary)
PERSIST ; continue obstinately. (The Concise Oxford Dictionary)