“And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. “So I say to you, 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” (Luke 11:5-10).

The Lord Jesus gave us this teaching about the power of prayer and perseverance. And as He illustrated through the parable of the “Importunate Friend”, He spoke of the importance of even importuning God through prayer. Not that God is annoyed, but for the human being to understand the importance of perseverance in prayer, He illustrated this importunate friend by waking up the other at midnight.

So, this is a lesson we all need to learn because I have never met someone who has said: “Look, I have been praying too much; I need to pray less”. But some people say: “I need to ask for more, seek more protection, light, direction, deliverance. I need to pray more.”

A human error is that sometimes we want to do things in the strength of our own arms when we have the strong arm of our Lord, and all we must do is pray and bother Him. Jesus was trying to say that it is not an annoyance for God. For us, it seems to be. People say, “I don’t want to bother God with this.” For us, it looks like an annoyance, but it is a sign of dependence on God. Just like a child says: “Dad, what do you think? What should I do?” The father wants to listen to his son. If there is one thing that kills families today, it is silence. The children who don’t talk to their parents and keep staring at their mobile phones all day. This lack of communication kills families. Sometimes the child thinks about suicide at home, but the father and mother don’t know.

So, I ask you: if God knows everything and, hence, we don’t need to talk, then why did He leave these words here? It’s not because He doesn’t know what we need; He wants us to exercise our faith. You need to exercise your faith, and prayer is how we show God that we need help; we offer our humility and position of need. We ask because we recognise that we need Him. When the need becomes greater than pride, the person seeks to solve the problem.

So, be the child who pleases the Father. The Lord Jesus, even being one with the Father, withdrew to pray. We can all practice that more. We can do this more, anywhere, at any time, and we don’t pay anything. Just say: “My Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, I beg you: listen now to my prayer”. And then you speak your own words and see how He will react to what you will ask.

Check out this message in full in the video above.