Perseverance in the midst of trials

Don’t Give Up

When we don’t see immediate answers to our prayers, we tend to want to give up. That’s when we need perseverance. Effective praying is like running a marathon. Endurance is the key. Do you remember the wonderful promise Jesus made concerning prayer? “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

What most people fail to realize is that this is a conditional promise. Unfortunately, the condition is missed in most of our English translations. The condition is perseverance. A literal rendering of the Greek text reads, “Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.” How many times have we failed to receive an answer to our prayers because we have failed to meet the condition of perseverance?