God Comes Where He's Wanted: Discovering New Hope When Your Prayers Feel Like They're Going NowhereSample

Have you noticed how many of our favorite things have an "instant" option? Instant coffee, instant messaging, instant delivery—we love everything fast and easy.

A couple of years ago, my family was preparing for Halloween. This holiday is a big deal in our neighborhood—anywhere from 300 to 800 kids come to our home! It's our best chance to meet our neighbors and build relationships all year, so we moved our fire pit to the front yard, set out candy, and made it a whole event.

One year, we bought instant fire logs while trying to simplify things. The marketing was perfect: "Fast, easy, and clean!" And it worked... sort of. The logs lit quickly with minimal smoke. But there were problems. The fire barely gave off any heat, and the chemical smell was so intense my wife had a nauseous reaction to it.

The following year, we went back to building a regular fire. Yes, it took more work, and yes, it produced more smoke. But when the temperature dropped, those real logs provided the warmth we needed. Our decision failed to deliver the experience we wanted.

This experience taught me something profound about prayer. Many of us approach prayer like an instant fire log - we want it fast, easy, and clean. But that's not how Jesus taught us to pray.

See Jesus' famous words in Matthew 7: "Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you." We often read these words as one-time actions. Ask once. Seek once. Knock once. Then, when nothing happens, we think, "Well, I did my part!"

But here's what I discovered: these words indicate continuous action in the original language. The New Living Translation captures this perfectly: "Keep on asking... keep on seeking... keep on knocking." Jesus never separates prayer from perseverance. The kind of prayer He teaches isn't a one-off request—it's a continuous, persevering action.

As Albert Haas wisely noted, "There's no spiritual microwave oven you can put yourself in and come out 60 seconds later as a saint. You must be willing to jump into the crockpot called your life and simmer for a lifetime."

We live in a microwave culture and try to follow a crockpot God. And sometimes, even a crockpot is too fast for God's timing!

This continuous prayer Jesus describes requires persistence in asking AND patience in waiting.

Many of us struggle with both. We're more like my kids, who hate being bored. We give up when we have to wait on God. Our perseverance muscles are weak. We stop praying because we get impatient or distracted.

But Jesus promises that the work is worth it. He says, "If you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" Notice that He doesn't say when—He only promises that our persistent prayers matter to a perfect Father.

Tomorrow, on the final day of this plan, I'll share the most encouraging truth I've discovered about persistence in prayer. It completely changed how I view those times when God seemed silent.