Aggressive prayer (Part 1)
Verse of the day: Matthew 7: 8 " For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened"
Being imperfect, man is forced to submit to the law of "giving" and "receiving". Several times Jesus reminded the disciples that they have the right to ask God the Father what they lack provided they do so in his name. The problem is that it happens that we face situations when our prayers seem powerless. We pray, we ask in the name of Jesus, we wait, we get discouraged and give up. To comfort ourselves, we conclude that it was not God's will and we do so to avoid confessing that it is impossible.
This teaching will prove to us that this ease to give up or feel that it is not God's will or that it is impossible, is often the result of lack of perseverance in prayer. As it is well detailed in the verse of the day, there are things we receive from God just by asking but there are others that require us to seek and others that we need to knock before having them.
Therefore, there are three options in order to receive something from God: Ask, Seek & Knock. I do not know what you are in the process of asking the Lord but it could be that you are forced to do more than asking ... you may need to seek or to knock. Throughout this teaching, I will focus on the last two options: Seeking and Knocking.
Above all, we must understand that there is a big difference between "Asking" and "Seeking". Asking is one thing while Seeking at is another. Everyone knows how to ask (even children) but very few manage to seek. Asking requires no efforts, but Seeking requires patience and especially persistence. Everyone knows how to knock on the door when there is someone willing to immediately open but very few manage to keep knocking when the person inside did not open the door. No one can continue to knock on a door if he is not convinced that there is someone inside. The duration of your persistence determines the level of your faith.
However, persistence is to be built on a positive faith i.e. in accordance with the will of God. Many prayers according to the will of God are not answered by the lack of perseverance because instead of seeking, we simply ask.
In part two, I will talk about the benefits of perseverance in prayer.
Chris Ndikumana
