Empty Nets & Broken Lives Sample

Receiving Answers Through Relentless Prayers

Would you rather be a bad host or a bad friend? Jesus told a parable about an annoyingly persistent friend who, when faced with this dilemma, decided he’d rather be an annoying friend than a bad host.  

The persistent friend didn’t care that his midnight visit and “whispering” through the walls woke up the whole family and put his friend out of sorts. To him, the greater offense would’ve been not offering his travel-weary friends some much-needed refreshment. 

When the man in bed realized his friend wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer, he got up to give his friend what he wanted, three measly loaves of bread. It wasn’t love for his friend that prompted him out of bed, it was his friend’s utterly shameless, overly bold, and annoyingly persistent request. In other words, it was his importunity that got him the results he wanted.

Amazingly, Jesus used this story to illustrate that we should pray like the annoyingly persistent friend. He said, “I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will arise and give him as many as he needeth" (Luke 11:5:8, ASV).

God is not mad, or put out, by our persistent, demanding prayers. He doesn’t roll his eyes when we desperately lay our burdens before him again and again. Instead, he welcomes it and reminds us that he loves us and wants to do us good. The Puritan Thomas Goodwin took it even a step further, and said, we ought to ‘sue God’ in our prayers. He said,

“Sue Him for it, sue Him for it. Do not leave God alone. Pester Him, as it were, with His own promise. Tell Him what He has said He is going to do. Quote Scripture to Him…It pleases Him. The child may be slightly impertinent, it doesn’t matter, the Father likes it in spite of that. And God is our Father, and He loves us, and He likes to hear us pleading His own promises, quoting His own words to Him, and saying, in light of this, can you refrain from answering me? It delights the heart of God. Sue Him! That is, demand that He answer you because He has promised to do so!”  

So if you’re asking God for three loaves, or you’re asking him to move mountains on your behalf, you can pray with importunity. You can be bold, brash, shameless, demanding, annoying, persistent, and impertinent, and remind God of what his Word says. You can approach the throne of God and sue him to fulfill his Word. He delights to do you good, and he’s eager to answer such prayers.