PRAY: Prayer for Those Who Ask and Keep on Asking
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Photograph © 2012, Andrew Pieper
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“Up to this time, you have not asked a [single] thing in My name [that is, presenting all I AM] but now ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy (gladness, delight) may be full and complete” (John 16:24, AMP).
Don’t you love it when God opens up a scripture passage in fresh ways? This year, I’ve been reading through the Bible in the Amplified version. Yes, it’s cumbersome. No, it’s not always accurate. But yes, it does give me a fresh view of my Father and the way He works. And that’s what happened when I read this verse early this morning.
One of the things I love about the Amplified is its rich rendering of Greek verbs. The word for ask here comes to us in the linear or continuous tense. The Amplified captures it in a lovely manner: “ask and keep on asking.”
Ask and keep on asking. That’s what we do, isn’t it? When we have a hurting child or an unresolved conflict or a situation we find ourselves powerless to change, we do it. We ask and keep on asking. We persist in prayer. When the situation seems impossible, when the doors of heaven seem closed, when God’s arm seems short or his ear unhearing, we ask and keep on asking.
If you find yourself in this situation, I’m praying for you. Today.
Father, today I come to You on behalf of those who are persisting in prayer. I come praising You because You hear and answer according to Your Word. I come honoring You because You know the plans You have for us. And I come beseeching You because these dear ones are weary. So weary.
Lord, You know their needs. You hear each cry. None of the whispers and none of the shouts has escaped You.
You listen and love the mother kneeling at the bedside of her handicapped child, begging for favor and deliverance from evil. You hear the husband who sits at home, head in his hands, waiting for just one company to respond to the resumes he’s spread around. You hear the anguished wife whose husband has decided their marriage is no longer his priority. You hear the child who has been abandoned. You hear the grandparents who feel alone and powerless.
Come to each one, Lord God. Come to them with Your mighty love. Come to them with all Your promises. Remind them to cling. Remind them to trust. And God, remind them to keep on asking—not because of their faithfulness, but because of Yours. In Your holy name I pray—AMEN.
Are you in the “Ask, and keep on asking” club? Feel free to share your prayer need in a comment below or email me. You honor God and me by allowing me to keep on asking alongside you.
