Persistent Prayer

Staring Contest- You, Me, Now!

Gimli and Virginia both have a lovely little trait that I both love and hate- Stubbornness. When they get something in their heads that they want, it is very difficult to distract them from it. This leads to a behavior dogs are known for- Begging. The are begging pros! Gimli is a manipulative beggar. He pulls out all his charm when he wants something we have. When we are eating a snack, he will come up next to us and lay his head sweeetly on our laps. He does not do this normally. It is purely a trick to butter us up to give him what he wants. Virginia is not quite a subtle. She stares at us intensely, wags her tail furiously and paws at us until we give her what she wants. They may beg differently, but one thing they both do is wait expectantly with incredible patience. They don't care how long it takes- they will wait and wait and wait until you give them what they want. They don't forget, they don't stop asking. Their hope is that if they wait long enough, eventually we will give in and give them a little bite of food, or our sock to play with, or whatever it is they want.

This reminds me of the way Jesus taught the disciples how to pray in Luke 11:

 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

To be honest, it drives me nuts when the dogs beg me incessantly for stuff, but God is commanding us to do this to Him. He is not bothered by persistant prayer. He wants us to look to Him to provide for us and to ask Him for what we need. He wants us to expect Him to hear our prayers and answer us. He always does answer, just not always with a "yes", or even a "no." The worst is when the answer is "wait"! Oh, how I hate to hear "wait" from God! I am often tempted to believe prayer doesn't matter and that God doesn't answer, that He's just going to do what He wants and it doesn't matter what I pray for. The truth is that it does matter. It matters because God wants me to engage with Him, to seek Him, to seek His will, to look to Him as my provider, and to trust Him no matter what the answer is. And according to this passage, my prayers can even motivate God to act in a way He may not have without us asking. Wow! The God of the Universe hears my prayers, and even acts because of my prayers. 

So let's all be like Gimli and Virginia and pester God with our prayers, requests, needs, desires, and whatever else is on our minds, and trust Him to bless us through being nagging beggars!