[soc.religion.christian] Question on Persevering Prayer

kmm@cs.purdue.edu (Kevin Megill) (05/23/91)

The question I have is this:

	It seems clear Biblically that perseverance in prayer can sometimes
	increase the effectiveness of the prayer.  (I am talking about 
	petition or intercession specifically and by effectiveness I mean
	simply whether what we prayed for happens.  I realize there is
	more to prayer than that.)  

	But if I pray once for something, doesn't it display a lack of
	faith to pray a second time?  See for eg, Mark 11:23, 24.

I know it doesn't, but I can't quite figure out how to answer this one.
I tentatively suspect that the promises such as the one in Mark, or 
John 15:7, are primarily assuming a lifestyle of persevering prayer, 
rather than a one-time event.  But I don't think they should be restricted
to only that.  Should they?

Please don't just tell me persevering prayer is important.  I know that.
Specifically, I want to be able to answer the above apparent paradox,
for a friend who might be helped to pray more if I could answer it.

Another thought I have is that it is similar to the "Lord's prayer". 
That sets a pattern for us of asking DAILY for our needs, rather than 
just praying once for all, "Please take care of all my needs, all my life!", 
I suspect this is because God wants us to constantly reaffirm our
dependence on Him.  Maybe the reason God wants us to persevere in prayer
has a lot more to do with us than with the "power" of our prayers.
But that is just half an answer.

Kevin Megill

[Part of it seems to be what you think prayer is doing.  If you think
it's informing God of your need, then it seems redundant to do it more
than once.  In fact it seems redundant to do it at all.  If you think
of prayer as something that will change you, then it's something you
need to do over and over.  Maybe through prayer you'll see that your
original desire was wrong.  Or maybe you'll see a way you are expected
to contribute to what you are asking for.  Some of us are sufficiently
thick-headed that it takes us a while to see these things...  --clh]