Matthew 7:7-8 — “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

Regularly God tells us through the Bible that He will answer our prayers. Why then do we often give up when there is something our heart desires? Maybe God wants to see how much we want the request. Maybe the delay is to teach us perseverance. Either way, God instructs us to pray without ceasing.

Ask, seek and knock continually. This is the way to have our prayers answered.

It’s been a few weeks since we got our puppy, Apache. We love her, but there are typical puppy nuisances that are exhausting. Potty training and chewing has caused us to be persistent in teaching her what we expect. We are determined not to give up because she is smart and we don’t want to end up with problems.

Why can we stay so on task with puppy training and yet easily quit when it comes to prayer?

The great preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, once preached a sermon where he challenged them with these words: “When you know what you need, your soul must become so possessed with the value of that device – with your own excessive need for it, with the danger which you will be in unless that device should not be granted – that you will be compelled to plead for it as a man pleads for his life. ... We must have such a desire for the thing we need, that we will not rise until we have it – but in submission to His divine will, nevertheless. Feeling that the thing we ask for cannot be wrong; and He, Himself, has promised it, we have resolved it must be given, and if not given, we will plead the promise again and again, till heaven’s gates shall shake before our pleas shall cease.”

When we understand God’s heart for us and believe His promises to answer our cries, we should continue seeking what we long for. Are you discouraged because you have prayed diligently for something without any noticeable answers?

Don’t give up. Persistently lay your specific requests out before Him and believe that as you seek Him, He will give you the desires of your heart. Nothing is too hard for Him; He delights to show us great and mighty things that are beyond our imagination.

Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. Persevere in your prayers and take heart. God promises to answer, and He always keep His word.

Sandra Sheridan is a Midwest wife and mother of five. She shares her messages to her children with Farm World. Visit her at www.VersesFromMama.com