Always Pray (And Don’t Give Up)

Always Pray (And Don’t Give Up)

Rachel Olsen

Bam-ham … ham, ham-ham-ham …

The noise slowly fills my consciousness.

What is that?

I rub my eyes and glance at the clock on the nightstand: 5:51 a.m. Sounds like … hammering. Who’s hammering at 6 o’clock in the morning— on a Saturday?

I get up and peer through the blinds to look into my neighbor’s backyard. I’m not sure what I expect to see or what I think I might do about it. If I see my neighbor hammering, am I really prepared to walk out there—pink jammies, tousled hair, and all—and say something about poor timing? I’m not very confrontational. But neither am I a morning person, and this hammering has got to stop.

Bam-bam-bam … bam … ham-bam …

I wake my husband, Rick, with my movement at the window, the rising sunlight breaking into the bedroom.

“Do you hear that noise?” I ask him. “What is that? It sounds like hammering!”

Rick listens for a moment. “It’s a woodpecker,” he states with confidence. Anticipating my response, he adds, “You can’t stop him.”

I can’t stop him? This sounds like a challenge. As Rick drifts back to sleep, I head outside to find this bird. I spot it hanging off the side of my house, pecking holes into the wood trim.

I try scaring it away. I scream at it. I throw sticks toward it. Don’t worry, animal lovers, I throw like a girl. It turns out Rick is right; I can’t stop the bird.

The woodpecker kept hammering, and I continued my antics. The woodpecker remained undeterred. Occasionally, he’d fly off to a neighboring tree only to fly back and peck the side of my house again as soon as I’d gone back inside and tried to return to my pillow. So I finally gave up and granted him the right to hammer the house in peace. It’s not what I wanted to do, but he wore me down. He was unstoppable.

Interestingly enough, Jesus told a story of a woman who had woodpecker-like faith. Woodpecker-like persistence. You just couldn’t stop her. With the parable in Luke 18:1–8, Jesus taught His disciples to always pray and never give up. The woman in the parable petitioned a judge for justice so often and so boldly that he thought she would soon wear him out.

I wonder, do we constantly seek God with the same tenacity, asking Him in faith for what we need?

Jesus didn’t describe the judge in this way to portray God as unwilling or easily exhausted by our requests—the judge doesn’t represent God in this story. Jesus was saying: if an unjust judge would eventually grant the request of this woman, how much more will our gracious Father grant the requests of His own children?

God is willing to answer—to help, to restore, to vindicate, and redeem. But we must have faith. And we must ask Him. Sometimes—oftentimes —repeatedly. We need the kind of faith that will not give up. The kind of faith that just cannot be stopped. The kind of faith that prays always.

We need woodpecker faith.

Dear Lord, hear my prayers today about _______.

Thank You in advance for Your answers. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

REMEMBER

Jesus wants you to pray with persistence.

REFLECT

What prayer would you like answered? What injustice do you need righted?

RESPOND

Set a reminder—on your phone, calendar, or on a sticky note—to pray for this four times in the next twenty-four hours.

POWER VERSES

Mark 9:23; James 5:13