Giving Up on God

ALL – Psalm 76:1-12
ALL – Proverbs 12:15-17
OT – Deuteronomy 26:1-27:28
NT – Luke 10:38-11:13

“Prayer doesn’t work.”

“God doesn’t care.”

“I’ve tried asking God. Nothing happened.”

We get discouraged so easily. So quickly. We think prayer’s supposed to be like a magic charm that creates good luck, a silver bullet that knocks our problems out of our lives. We’re like my daughter, who is convinced that she ought to get whatever she wants so long as she says, “Please.” So when we ask God for something, and we ask nicely, and nothing comes, we give up on prayer. Really, we give up on God.

Jesus taught His disciples not to give up. Encouraging His disciples to imagine being a man who needed bread for a guest, Jesus described this man going to his friend for help—in the middle of the night. The friend responded as most of us would in the middle of the night: “This can wait until morning. You’re a friend, but this is ridiculous! Goodnight.” But that wasn’t the end of Jesus’ parable:

But I’ll tell you this—though he won’t do it as a friend, if you keep knocking long enough he will get up and give you everything you want—just because of your persistence. And so it is with prayer—keep on asking and you will keep on getting; keep on looking and you will keep on finding; knock and the door will be opened. – Luke 11:8-9, The Living Bible

God isn’t just our buddy in the sky. He’s not an instant-gratification coin slot—put in a prayer, out comes a prize. He’s not to be taken advantage of. He won’t put up with it. He wants US, not just our prayers. And He’s willing to require persistence of us to find out whether we’re really after Him or just after His blessings. Of course, since God knows our hearts, our persistence is required more to reveal our hearts to ourselves than to Him.

But persistence is one of the marks of a true relationship, a true love. Those of us who pray quick trial prayers to “see what happens” demonstrate our lack of faith; such people think, “God probably won’t do anything, but it’s worth a shot.” Persistence in prayer is a mark of faith, because by persisting in the face of a seemingly unresponsive God we demonstrate how fully we know that we need Him. We will not turn elsewhere in vain efforts to control our lives; our lives are fully in His hands, and we’ll leave them there. That’s what persistence in prayer says. And God responds to our persistence. “Keep on asking and you will keep on getting.”

Have you given up on finding God’s help in your time of need? Have you prayed only once? Return to God in prayer over and over. Place your needs and desires in His hands. Trust Him. He’s faithful and good.

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