How to Keep Praying for Something That Seems Impossible

Every Sunday for years, Jim Cimbala walked into

the same office before church, shut the door, and cried. He

pastored the Brooklyn Tabernacle, a church known around the world

for its choir and its prayer meetings. People fought through

New York City traffic after work just to get to the Tuesday night

prayer gathering. And the whole time, the pastor leading them

had a hole in his own family he couldn't fix. His daughter

Chrissy, raised in that church, singing in that world, had

walked away. She'd gotten ejected from Bible college and

ended up far from home, a young single mother whose life was

coming apart. For a long stretch, Jim and Carol didn't even know

where she or whether she was safe. So they did the only thing

left to do. They Sunday after Sunday, Tuesday after Tuesday,

year after year, with nothing changing. If you'd been in that

church, you might have wondered how long a person can keep

praying the same prayer into what feels like silence. Then

came a Tuesday night in February. We'll come back to what happened.

But first...

Welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger. If

you've been praying for the same thing for years and you're worn

out, I want to put some fight back into your prayers. And I'll

be honest, I can't point to one impossible thing in my own life

that I prayed for over years. I've prayed for some pretty big

things that have finally come true and some things that

haven't. But I've stood in the gap for plenty of other people

facing situations that looked completely shut. Marriages

everyone had written off and diagnoses that had left no room

for hope. And here's what I've watched happen. A lot of those

prayers got answered, sometimes in ways nobody saw coming. A few

were still praying, and I haven't given up because I've

seen too many of the others finally get answered. But it can

be discouraging. You've been praying for the same thing for

years, and nothing has moved. The marriage that's falling

apart still hasn't healed. The child still hasn't come home.

After enough time, you wonder whether your prayers are doing

anything at all. Whether they're bouncing off the ceiling or

whether you're just talking to yourself. Most people who've

prayed a long time know what I'm talking about. And Jesus knew

we'd feel that. So he told a story about it to keep us from

losing heart and giving up. Listen to Luke 18, verses 1

through 8. One day, Jesus told his disciples a story to show

that they should always pray and never give up. There was a judge

in a certain city, he said, who neither feared God nor cared

about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly,

saying, Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy. The judge

ignored her for a while, but he finally said to himself, I don't

fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me

crazy. I'm going to see that she gets justice, because she is

wearing me out with her constant request. Then the Lord said,

learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just

decision in the end. So don't you think God will surely give

you justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night?

Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice

to them quickly. But when the Son of Man returns, how many

will he find on earth who have faith? tells us up front why

he's telling the story. So we'd always pray and never give up.

Then he paints a powerless widow going back to a judge who

doesn't care, asking again and again until he gives her justice

just to be rid of her. I find that a bit amusing, but here's

what I believe God's trying to teach us. Even if a corrupt

judge will eventually answer someone who refuses to quit, how

much more will a good and loving father answer the children who

cry out to him day and night? Your father is nothing like that

reluctant judge, and he's not being worn down. He's inviting

you to keep coming. But we don't know what's going on behind the

scenes that need to happen, or why it's taking so long, or even

why it may not get answered in the way we would like. So hear

this before we go back to Brooklyn. The prayers you've

prayed a hundred times are not bouncing off the ceiling. Keep

coming back. Someone at the prayer meeting slipped a note

into Jim's hand. It read, Tonight is Chrissy's night. He

felt he was supposed to read it aloud, and when he did, more

than a thousand people began to cry out for her at once. One

person there later called it a labor room of prayer. That same

night, miles away, Chrissy was putting her baby to bed when

something broke open in her. She describes being startled awake

to a sense that God was right there, that she was seen, that

the life she'd been running was killing her. A few days later,

she walked back through her parents' door. The girl who had

been gone came home, and today she and her husband pastor a

church of their own. That's the promise hiding inside the story

Jesus told. A widow kept going back to a judge who didn't care,

asking for justice, refusing to quit until the answer came. And

Jesus said, If even a corrupt judge eventually responds to

that kind of persistence, how much more will a loving father

answer the people who cry out to him day and night? The prayers

you've prayed a hundred times aren't bouncing off the ceiling.

He hears them, and he invites you to keep coming. Here's

today's challenge. Take the prayer you've almost given up on

and pray it again today, out loud. Then put it where you'll

see it, on the mirror or your phone, and pray it every day

this week, the way the widow kept coming. You're not wearing

God down. You're taking him up on his invitation. And if it

helps, ask one other person to pray it with you.

Father, you see the people listening who have prayed the

same prayer for years and are tired. Thank you that you are

nothing like the reluctant judge, that you welcome our prayers and

you invite us to keep coming. Give them strength to keep

asking and confidence that you hear every word. Where they

can't see anything moving, help them trust that you're at work

and let them keep crying out to you day and night. In Jesus'

name, amen. If you need prayer today, I'd love to hear from you.

You can leave me a voicemail at dailydevotionsforbusylives.com

slash voicemail. I listen to everyone, and it would be an

honor to bring your name before the Lord. Thanks for joining me

on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, the prayer

you've prayed a hundred times isn't bouncing off the ceiling.

You're praying to a father who welcomes you back and tells you

to keep coming. Come back next time for more encouragement to

help you live grounded in God's truth. Until then, God bless and

have a great day.