Perseverance in Prayer

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them…‘Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to say, “My friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him”; and the man answers from inside the house, “Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up to give it you.” I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it him for friendship’s sake, persistence will be enough to make him get up and give his friend all he wants. ‘So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him. What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead of a fish? Or hand him a scorpion if he asked for an egg? If you then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’ The most important motivation to spend time with God in prayer is that we all want to be happy. Happiness consists in possessing those good things we need to fulfill our human nature. In general we need physical goods, food, shelter, ect., we need family and friends, meaningful work and achievement, knowledge, beauty and so on. But even if we had all these we would still not be perfectly happy because nothing in this world is perfect, its not lasting and it can never be enough. We were made for more. We were made for union with God. Nothing less will satisfy the infinite longing of the human heart. Prayer is precisely where we go to drink in God and become happy. Jesus said, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me! Let him come and drink…From my heart will flow fountains of living water. He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive.’” It is a consolation to learn that the Great Teresa of Avila, Universal Doctor of Prayer, struggled for 18 years with distraction in prayer until she read the Confessions of St. Augustine which made her realize her problem in prayer was that she thought her prayer depended on her. She learned that Prayer is more about what God wanted to do in her more than what she was doing in prayer. If you want to grow in prayer; abandon yourself-reliance; learn to depend entirely upon Jesus; and just spend time with Jesus in friendship. As Teresa writes: Meditation in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends: it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. Finally, just persevere  Teresa of Avila says we need to add courage and determination to our perseverance Have great confidence, for it is necessary not to hold back one's desires, but to believe in God that if we try we shall little by little, even though it may not be soon, reach the state the saints did with His help. For if they had never determined to desire and seek this state little by little in practice they would never have mounted so high. His Majesty wants this determination, and He is a friend of courageous souls if they walk in humility and without trusting in self. I have not seen any cowardly soul or any of these who under the pretext of humility remain along the bottom of this path who do not take many years to advance as far as these courageous ones do in a few. I marvel at how important it is to be courageous in striving for great things along this path. For though the soul is not yet strong enough, it nonetheless takes flight and goes very high although like a little fledgling it soon tires and stops. Teresa of Avila, Life, 31:3