FAITH DEMONSTRATED THROUGH PERSISTENT PRAYER
Disciples of Jesus need to learn how to pray. We need Jesus to teach us to ask for those things which our Father in heaven promises us. We need to learn to claim in prayer what he wants for us more than what we want from him. However, learning to pray is not like many of the other things we learn to do in our lives. Once we know how to write our name, tie our shoes, or ride a bike, the learning is done. There is virtually no danger we will forget how to do those things. Not so with prayer. Prayer is not something we learn to do once and then know how to do correctly for the rest of our lives. Learning to pray consists of a lifetime of persistence and struggle. But when we struggle with God in prayer, it is not an indication that something is wrong but that everything is right. Struggle is part of the very nature of prayer and at the heart of the blessings it brings in our lives of faith.