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Bothering God: Becoming Persistent in Prayer
When we lay everything, however big or small, before the Lord, we become more discerning of those things that lead to our sanctification, and therefore God’s will.
“Forgive me for bothering you with something so minor …”
How many times has somebody approached you with words like this? If we’re paying attention, we can probably detect some level of shame in their approach. They are likely afraid that they are pestering you with something that feels too small to be worthy of your time. When you’re at your best, you probably respond with something along the lines of, “No, that’s totally OK, what’s up?” If it’s somebody who answers to you in a working relationship, you may even reply something like, “I want you to feel the freedom to bother me with anything, however big or small.”
I had a recent conversation with a pastor who was struggling with a series of life and ministry decisions, and he asked me if I had any wisdom for him. Here is what I told him:
“Pray about everything. Literally every single, solitary thing.”
I told him that during a crossroads in my own life some years ago, I realized there were certain things I never prayed about. Even though I had cultivated a regular, if not imperfect discipline of daily prayer, it dawned on me that I only laid the “big ticket items” before the Lord, instead of praying “at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request” (Eph. 6:18). What might change in your life if you began to bother God with everything?
I get that you might initially be bothered by the word bother. But Jesus tells a parable in Luke 18 about a widow who sought justice from an unjust judge, and she was so annoyingly persistent that the judge finally caved in to her request. Jesus goes on to say, “Will not God grant justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay helping them?” (v. 7). I wonder what kind of fruit we might see if we took a page from this widow’s playbook on persistence and began bothering God with every request and desire? A few observations:
We Will Become More Discerning of God’s Will
Ahhh yes, the mystery of God’s will! Of course, we know “The Lord does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths” (Ps. 135:6). We also know that “The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). We further know that when we pray for anything that leads to our sanctification, God will grant it to us because our sanctification is His will for us (1 Thess. 4:3).
Where am I going with this?
Well, when we lay everything, however big or small, before the Lord, we become more discerning of those things that lead to our sanctification, and therefore God’s will. When I begin to pray about even the most minor thing over and over, the Lord begins to transform how I think about the request itself, and it’s through this act of vulnerability and faithfulness that He provides me with discernment about whether it’s something that would be pleasing to Him and therefore good for my sanctification. It’s not about praying until I get the yes I want, it’s about praying until my heart is able to say “Yes, Lord, I trust You no matter the outcome.”
We Will Become More Sensitive to Potential Idols
Bothering God with everything allows certain requests that have become important to us, and potentially idolatrous, to be exposed for what they might actually be. Let me say it like this—if I never pray about even the “smallest” desire, it has the potential to become a slow, poisonous venom that spreads through my soul. Like the invisible mold growing behind the walls, or some sneaky weed that sprouts up overnight in a neglected area of our garden, a desire that we keep to ourselves can begin to deceptively form us in dangerously subtle and sinful ways. Since we all possess hearts that are dreadfully deceitful (Jer. 17:9), it’s important for us to recognize areas that we might be inclined to keep hidden or dismiss altogether.
We Will Become More Attentive to God’s Fatherly Love
It can be hard for us to fathom that the Lord cares about every single, solitary detail of our life. In some ways it’s understandable, especially since we’re talking about the creator of the universe. “Why would the person who designed the rings of Saturn be concerned about some stupid home project that I’m stressing over?” But the Bible describes a God who is a Father to us, not some deity that would prefer to be left alone to rule the Marvel multiverse. When we pray, when we bother God about literally everything, we are approaching Him for who He really is—a Father who loves us more deeply than we have the imagination to fathom.
My daughter is thirty years old now, but there are few things that give me more joy than when she comes to me with even the most miniscule thing on her heart. How much deeper must our heavenly Father’s love be for us when we do the same? Bringing everything to Him helps us become more attentive to His steadfast love for us. Our approach is more childlike. We eagerly cast all our cares on Him, because we know how deeply He cares about us (1 Pet. 5:7).
What would it look like for you to compile a list of all the requests and desires you’ve been holding in your heart and relinquish them all to the Lord? What if you started by saying, “Lord, I have some things I’m going to bother You with, and there are a lot, so here we go.” What you may find is that the Lord is a Father who, unlike many of our own Fathers, receives our requests and desires with a heart of love and compassion. Yes, He will expose those disjointed desires in order to conform us more deeply into the image of Christ. But He will never be a Father who “can’t be bothered.” In fact, He can be bothered, and we will be blessed the more we “bother” Him.
Try it.
“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer” (1 Pet. 3:12).
