Persistent Prayer

Luke 11 (KJV)
5And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 7And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 8I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity (persistence) he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. 9And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." - Matthew 6:7

Where's the balance? One section of scripture says to be persistent in prayer while the other warns of vain repetitions. Another section tells us that God is aware of our needs. How do you address this issue?

I guess the best place to start is to think about some of the purposes of prayer. It's our chance to communicate with the Father. It's also a chance for us to offer up requests to the Father. I think one of the greatest purposes of prayer is illustrated in the life of Moses.

God was about to destroy Israel and start a new nation from Moses, but Moses interceded for Israel. The result was that God did not destroy Israel. Did God change His mind, or did God change Moses? Think about Moses, he had a short temper and that resulted in the murder of an Egyptian. I think the person who murdered the Egyptian would have taken God up on the "nation out of you" offer. But God gave Moses the chance to change - and Moses did.

So what does this have to do with persistent prayer? I think it has much to do with it. The more we pray, the more we seek His will. And according to the main scripture today from Luke 11, seek and you will find. If we are putting God's will first, then we are changing to be more Godly.

All this to say that persistent prayer changes us into what the Father intends. Pretty cool.