Effective prayer

Matthew 7:7-8 (NLT)

7 “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. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

In these verses Jesus gave us the basis of effective prayer – Keep on seeking and Keep on asking. Ask we seek and ask for the answers to prayers the door will be opened until we find the appropriate response.

In her book Holy the Firm, Annie Dillard writes of attending a small church with some 20 people:

The minister is a Congregationalist and wears a white shirt. The man knows God. Once, in the middle of the long pastoral prayer of intercession for the whole world for the gift of wisdom to its leaders, for hope and mercy to the grieving and pained, succor to the oppressed, and God's grace to all in the middle of this he stopped and burst out, "Lord, we bring you these same petitions every week." After a shocked pause, he continued reading the prayer. Because of this, I like him very much. [Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm (HarperCollins, 1999)]

Above we find the minister being honest in his prayer. The same basic prayer had been offered week after week. The desire was there for an answer, but an answer wasn’t coming in the manner everyone wanted. So in his desperation he called out to God, “Lord we bring you these same petitions every week.”  The minister was still asking and still seeking for a response. Be assured God is listening and God is working on the response. Sometimes the response just doesn’t come in the time constraint we have placed upon God.