Have you ever prayed and felt like nothing happened? Pastor Jen encourages us never to give up! Keep on praying with faithful persistence! God is a good Father. He is always listening and working, even when we can’t see it.
Notes 📓✏️:
Have you ever prayed and felt like nothing happened?
Matthew 7:7-8: Ask, and the gift is yours. Seek, and you’ll discover. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. For every persistent one will get what he asks for. Every persistent seeker will discover what he longs for. And everyone who knocks persistently will one day find an open door.
PERSISTENT.
Matthew 7:7-8 (AMP): Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened.
Ask.
Seek.
Knock.
A.S.K.
Luke 18:6-8: The Lord continued, “Did you hear what the ungodly judge said – that he would answer her persistent request? Don’t you know that God, the true judge, will grant justice to all of His chosen ones who cry out to Him night and day? He will pour out his Spirit upon them. He will not delay to answer you and give you what you ask for. God will give swift justice to those who don’t give up. So be ever praying, ever expecting, just like the widow was with the judge. Yet when the Son of Man comes back, will He find this kind of persistent faithfulness in His people?”
“ever tapping”
Matthew 21:22: If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.
Mark 11:24: Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Matthew 18:19-20: Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.
What about when our experience doesn’t line up with these promises?
Prayer isn’t equational, it’s relational.
Prayer isn’t a formula – it’s a friendship.
Matthew 7:9-11: Do you know of any parent who would give his hungry child, who asked for food, a plate of rocks instead? Or when asked for a piece of fish, what parent would offer his child a snake instead? If you, imperfect as you are, know how to lovingly take care of your children and give them what’s best, how much more ready is your heavenly Father to give wonderful gifts to those who ask Him?
Our Lord never referred to unanswered prayer. He taught that prayers are always answered: “Everyone who asks receives”. And He implied that prayers are answered rightly because of the heavenly Father’s wisdom: “Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him”. – Oswald Chambers
-Yes.
-No.
-I will if you will.
-Not yet.
-Trust His wisdom, not just His power.
“Yet when the Son of Man comes back, will He find this kind of persistent faithfulness in His people?”
Discussion Questions đź“ťâť“:
- What does it mean to be persistent in prayer, and why do you think Jesus emphasizes this in Matthew 7:7-8 where he says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you?”
- In the sermon, Pastor Jen mentioned the concept of God not answering prayers like a vending machine. Have you ever had to learn this in your faith journey?
- What does it mean that prayer isn’t a formula, but a friendship?
- Pastor Jen said that God answers prayers in different ways: “yes,” “no,” “I will if you will,” and “not yet.” Share about a time when you received one of these responses from God, even if it wasn’t the one you wanted.