There are so many references to prayer and praying in our Scriptures. A quick count in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible will put the number somewhere around 560. All of those Scriptures will reveal many aspects on the subject of prayer. At the outset, let it be said that much more important than how we pray is that we do pray! Jesus spoke a parable recorded in Luke 18 that people always ought to pray and never lose heart. The story is about a judge and a persistent widow. She was seeking justice and would not give up her cause. Her persistence paid off. Finally, the judge avenged her case. Jesus taught a valuable lesson. The answer may be slow in coming, but when it does, it comes speedily.
It reminds me of a story my father-in-law told me years ago about one of his neighbors. Seems the fellow had lost one of his cows. He searched all over his farm. From fence line to fence line, down the hollows and through thickets, looking and looking, but no cow in sight. Fighting fatigue and frustration, he finally found her. Now this fellow was known to have a humorous way of stating things. When he told the story to my father-in-law, these were his words, :I looked and looked all morning, and when I found her, I found her all at once.” Another cow story from a dear friend of mine comes from southern Indiana. His cows got out and into the cornfield. Try as he might, the cows kept going down one row after another. He finally realized that he was facing a near impossible task, so he stopped and prayed, “Lord, you know where these cows are, please bring them out of that cornfield.” In a few minutes, all the cows came to the end of the rows, and into the opening. When he told us the story in one of his sermons, he said, “I stood there with tears in my eyes.” He told the Lord, “You’re a better Cowboy than I am.” So keep praying, and never give up!
– Terry A. Morrison.