Persistence in Prayer

I always tell people that my faith is really important to me, and it is. Have you ever stopped to think about what faith actually means? Yes, I'm a Christian. Yes, I prayer and go to church. I believe; however, I am imperfect. I fall short, and it is usually in the area of trust and prayer. 

Trust. As I was thinking about faith this morning, I realized that faith doesn't happen without trust. In fact, faith essentially is trust. It's believing that God will provide according to His plan. When life gets hard and even scary, faith is trusting that it will all be okay because God makes all things work together for good. So when my engine light goes on, I have trouble forgiving a friend, or a student's mother passes away suddenly, I surrender it all to Him. Faith is trusting when God tests us on every level. 

Trust is also learning to be persistence. If we stop to think about it, when we want to see a change, we make a change. That doesn't mean we change for two weeks and then revert back to old habits. No, it means that we are persistent about changing. Prayer works the same way. We get discouraged when our prayers are not answered, causing us to lose trust - lose faith. God values persistence. He never tires from hearing from us. Prayer might be messy, but that's okay. God delights in that too. In order to fully trust Him, we have to be connected throughout the day, whispering little prayers to guide us. We have to trust that the fearful parts of life have been placed upon our journey for a reason. God is checking our persistence. He's humbling us so that we remember where our faith should be -- with Him.