1776 Why You Keep Praying

BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

If you’ve already prayed about it, what do you do next? Really, what do you do when you’ve talked to God about this?

Jesus is very clear. After he teaches his disciples how to pray, he tells them in Luke 11: 9-10, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

When you’ve already prayed about it, then you pray again. You keep talking to God about it. Over and over again.

But why? The why is important because I must admit for a long time I had it wrong. I thought if I kept praying about it, maybe I would change God’s mind about it. But honey, God already has good plans for this situation. He already has a preferred future that is better than the future you’re imagining. You praying about it isn’t about changing God’s mind, it’s about changing yours.

When you continually pray about something, your mind begins aligning with God’s. The more you release it to him, the more you can receive the fullness of what he wills.

This is really a matter of passion. Will you be more passionate about your way and your timing, or God’s divine plan concerning this? Prayer develops passion. The more you pray, the more you recognize God in the details, and the more you recognize God in the details, the more passionate you become about watching him work.

The Passion Translation of Luke 11: 10 refers to the person who keeps on praying as the “persistent seeker”. The persistent seeker of God’s way will discover every single thing they need. The persistent seeker of God’s timing will be filled with passionate patience in the wait. The persistent seeker of God’s plan will walk in supernaturally aligned details.

Persistently seeking God changes you. That’s why Jesus says “keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.” It’s not the one big thing you do once that changes everything. It’s the little things you do daily that impacts your life. John C. Maxwell said, “You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine”.

You may not feel the immediate impact of daily prayer time, but you keep on doing that and I’m telling you there’s no possible way you will come out the same. You may open your Bible on most days and not understand what you’re reading and feel like it’s a waste of time, but you keep opening God’s word and eventually his word will get in you. It will change how you see things. It will change how you react to things. It will change how you think about things. Why? Because God’s word changes you on the inside and eventually that starts showing up on the outside.

Jesus says, KEEP ON DOING THIS.

A habit creates dependency. If you drink coffee every morning for a few weeks, soon you will have a dependency on the caffeine in that coffee. You will NEED it. Like get a massive headache without it kinda need it.

If you have a habit of hitting the snooze button 7 times before you get up, you soon develop a dependency on all 7 of those alarms before you actually wake up. What used to wake you up the first time, you now sleep right through as you hit the snooze out of habit without realization the alarm even went off. You are now dependent upon every hit the snooze button before waking up.

If you start drinking a glass of wine to unwind at the end of every day, soon you will have a complete dependency on that wine. You simply can’t feel at ease without it.

Habits create dependency.

And Jesus says, “After you pray about it, keep on praying. After you’ve look for God, keep on looking.” Why? Because this is to become a habit. Every habit creates a dependency, and you are designed to be dependent on your Creator.

For those strong, independent women trying to go through life without needing anyone, the thought of being created for dependency might be a hard pill to swallow. So go ahead and try being independent from the Creator and see how that works for you. Start holding your breath now, because the very air you breathe is his breath giving you life. You can’t. You can’t do this without him. You simply cannot physically be independent of God.

Your every breath is dependent on God. Waking up this morning was dependent on God. You can’t make yourself wake up, only God can do that. Your ability to think, process and function is totally dependent on God.

To all my strong, independent, self-willed, goal driven, determined, ‘don’t need anybody’ sisters out there … girl, humble yourself. You’re not. You can’t do anything without God. Jesus says in John 15:5, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” That’s truth. Humbling, pride crushing, self-willed breaking, TRUTH.

Prayer gets your head and heart in alignment with this dependence. Prayer changes you.

As you pray about it over and over again, seeking God’s movement and involvement, you open your hands and lay it at the foot of the cross. Over and over again, you release it to the only one who can change it. Somedays you pick it back up so you can worry about it and try to control it. Jesus says, “KEEP ON PRAYING ABOUT IT.” Bring it back to the foot of the cross, Sis, lay it down again. Release after release. Day after day. Until it’s a habit. And once it’s a habit, then you have a dependency.

This is by God’s design. You are physically dependent on Him whether you want to be or not. Prayer creates a mental and emotional dependency on him that aligns your heart, soul, mind, will and being with HIM. Then, you’re changed.

How are you changed? You kept praying about it. Through prayer, you developed a passion for what God is doing above what you wanted.

If I could have had this my way, this mess would have never touched my family. Through prayer, my entire being is coming into alignment with God’s greater plans and I’m literally growing excited about the bigger picture only he can see. I’m receiving divine visions of what his preferred future is, and it’s eternally so sweet! It’s hard in the here and now, but through prayer and a continual release of my way to receive a new passion for his way, I’m seeing how it will be worth it.

I know you’ve prayed about this and you’re questioning why when nothing is changing. Oh but my sister, you keep on praying and there’s something big changing. YOU ARE CHANGING. You’re learning to open your hands, release your sense of control, and seek God for his bigger and better plan. Again and again it’s becoming a habit. And this habit of persistently seeking God is creating a passion within you for the things of God. And this little thing, done over and over again, will radically change your entire life.

The more I pray about it, the more I see God working. The more I see God working, the more my heart is aligned. The more my heart is aligned, the more my hands are open. The more my hands are open, the more I can receive. What’s received here is peace overflowing and immeasurable strength for the journey. And that journey leads to a destination God has promised to be ridiculously good!

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