Nagging God

 

Sometimes I feel like I nag God. “I keep telling him “we need . . .” or “we want . . .” There are even times when I feel like I’m being a whiny bitch. Or times when I say, “Not that I’m ungrateful for what I have, I am grateful, but . . .”

Then as I was reading my Bible one night, I came across a story in the book of Luke. In Luke 18:1-7 a widow goes before a judge seeking legal protection against her opponent. At first the judge refuses, but she keeps going to him to ask for justice. Finally he says to himself, “If I don’t give her legal protection, she won’t leave me alone.”

The Bible goes on to say how serious are we about our prayers to God? Are we asking daily or are we asking once or twice and then leaving it alone? God wants to know we’re serious. That doesn’t mean He’ll grant every request, but if you keep asking you will receive an answer. He may say, “Yes” or “No” or “Not right now.” He may even say, “The answer is on the way.”

There’s another example of perseverance in prayer in the book of Daniel. In Daniel 10, we read that Daniel had been mourning and fasting for three (3) weeks while waiting for a response from God. When he finally got an answer, he learned that God had dispatched the messenger the moment Daniel set his heart on understanding and on humbling himself before the Lord. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia had withstood him until Michael came to help him.

Now the messenger didn’t tell him that he’d been nagging God. In fact, he said that Daniel was a “man of high esteem.” Daniel 10:11 (NAS)

After reading what God said about persevering in prayer, I was much encouraged. You see, my roommate and I have been praying for something for a few years now. I admit, I haven’t always prayed about it daily.  After all, I didn’t want to be a nag. After reading the passages in Daniel and Luke though, I got more serious about that request and others.

I know now that if I want God to take my requests seriously, then I need to seriously be on my knees praying. I need to be like the widow who refused to allow the judge to give her justice.

One last thought, when we pray for something, we need to be prepared to accept His answer. I once prayed about something I truly needed. I finally realized that I needed to pray for the situation in a specific way. When I did, the answer I received made me wonder if God had lost His marbles and the universe wasn’t aware of it. When I finally learned to trust that God knew what He was saying when He gave me the answer I needed, my life improved in ways that I can’t write here.