Luke 11:8
I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.
When you have little ones tugging at you for constant attention, it can become somewhat annoying, even for the most patient of parents. They flop in your lap, constantly asking why and how and saying "no" a lot. If you're not giving them the eye contact, even if you're listening, they'll get in your face, take your cheeks with both hands, get inches from your face so that they have your undivided attention. They are definitely persistent because in their mind, they are important and have an immediate need.
The same can be said with us and our relationship with God. When a situation arises in our lives, we turn to God in fervent prayer. We might even shout it out to God. We might go to church and pray before the tabernacle, so hard that we become emotional. We seek answers and a solution. Nothing else in this world seems to be important except this particular situation.
Jesus teaches us to be persistent in our prayer. He uses a parable of someone coming the house hungry, late at night. Maybe our human nature will help the individual, maybe we'll just ignore the knock and resume our sleep. If the individual is persistent, we'll help them just to make them go away, whether we are friendly or not. However God is not like that. God is always there for us at any time, day or night. It's never inconvenient for God and he always answers. It may not be the answer we want, or through the perceived silence, that is the answer. The situation always works itself out with God in charge. It may not be how we want it, but we must surrender the situation to God, and always point our prayers to him.
