Thursday, September 1, 2016

Bother God in Prayer


“because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice” – Luke 18:5

Do you ever feel like your prayers bother God?  Have you ever heard someone say, “You don’t need to keep asking God.  If you have prayed once, then from that point on just thank Him that the answer is coming; otherwise you aren’t praying in faith.”?  I understand this rational, but Luke 11:5-13 and Luke 18:1-8 teach us that certain things are only attained as we persistently pray and bother God!!!

Recently the Lord spoke to me from these two passages, and I have now made a “bother God” card.  This card is where I list those things I am going to keeping asking, keep knocking, and keeping seeking the Lord about.  These are prayer requests that I believe honor God and His kingdom, and I am going to repeatedly ask until they are answered, or until God shows me to quit asking for some reason.  Do you have a “bother God” list?  If not, I encourage you to start one.

Luke 11:8 uses the word “impudence” to speak of persistent prayer.  This is the only time this Greek word is used in the New Testament.  It is made up of two words:  “not” and “sense of shame or honor, modesty, bashfulness”.  Put together this word means to not have bashfulness or shame in coming to God.  Come boldly. Come persistently.  Come naked and unashamed.  Keep knocking on the door of heaven until you get an answer…for His glory!  Wrestle with God.  Bother God with your requests!

Then in Luke 18 we have the more familiar passage about the “persistent widow” who kept coming to the unjust judge until she got what she needed.  And Jesus tells us that God will “give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night” (v. 7). 


I believe there are mighty answers to pray that await those who will “always pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1).  Make your “bother God” list and keep pounding on the doors of heaven!