7 Reasons to Pray and Not Lose Heart

Do you ever get discouraged in prayer? Do you feel like giving up? Are you tempted to quit right now, before you get what you have asked for, if it seems to you that God is not answering?

If so, I wanted to share with you seven Biblical reasons why you should not quit—why you should pray and not lose heart; why you should persevere, no matter what … and why you should pray MORE and believe God MORE, rather than giving up … even if you don’t see any results.

Related: Prayer for Perseverance in Your Birthing Season

Beloved, we all need hope and encouragement in prayer.

God does answer when you pray. But, it’s the truth that He doesn’t always answer as fast as we wish He would! He also doesn’t always answer in quite the way we wish He would. Nevertheless, He does answer. His Word is true, and He is not a man, that He should lie!

Before we get into the seven reasons to pray and not lose heart, let’s look at a few encouraging Scriptures about how God DOES answer your prayer. Check out these amazing verses–some of my personal favorites in the whole Bible:

“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16 NKJV).

And John 14:14:

“If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14 NKJV).

And Jeremiah 33:3:

“‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know'” (Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV).

And Matthew 7:7-8:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8 NKJV).

O beloved! God does hear your prayers; His ear is tuned to your slightest whisper.

Of course, you do actually have to be praying, however, for Him to hear your prayers; He can’t answer a prayer that never occurred. 🙂 And that is why I want to encourage you today to PRAY, pray, pray, and pray some more–without losing heart, and without giving up, even if things are tough and you don’t understand why God is taking so long to let you see what you have asked Him for!

So, let’s look briefly at seven BIG reasons why you should pray for anything and everything you need and want–and not ever lose heart or stop praying. Shall we?

Reason 1: Jesus told us specifically that He will give us ANYTHING we ask for in His name, and according to His will.

In John 14:14, He gave us a blanket promise that covers absolutely every situation in life:

“If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14 NKJV).

And yes, we do have to ask in His name. In other words, when you pray, you have to acknowledge to the Father that it is only because of Jesus—in His name—that you are even able to come before Him. Jesus is the great and only Gateway to the Father, as we read in John 14:6:

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me'” (John 14:6 NKJV).

And we do also have to ask for things that are according to His will. First John 5:14 tells us that:

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14 NKJV).

But, if you ask the Father for anything that is His will—anything that is good and godly and healthy for you, according to His Word—and you ask the Father for your petitions to be met in the name of Jesus, He will give you that for which you are asking.

How do we learn what God’s will is, so we can pray for things properly?

Simple: by studying His Word. The whole Bible tells us in a million zillion ways what God is like, and how we should be, and what His will is. God’s Word also contains thousands of promises that clearly tell us how our Father wants to bless us, provide for us, comfort us, heal us, take care of us, and—most importantly—draw us closer to Jesus.

Beloved, our Heavenly Father is the Giver of good and perfect gifts. As His Word says in James 1:17:

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17 NKJV).

And we learn in Psalm 84:11 that He will not withhold any good thing from you if you walk uprightly:

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11 NKJV).

And because He is kind and good, He delights to shower good gifts down on you, His precious child!

Therefore, beloved, reason #1 to pray and not lose heart is:

You WILL receive that for which you are asking God, if you just keep on praying.

Make sure you are praying in Jesus’ name, and make sure you are praying in accordance with His will (as clearly described in His Word). But, as long as you are, ask away—and don’t give up, no matter what appearances say, or how many delays you experience!

Reason 2: Your prayers matter so much to God that He actually stores them in bowls in Heaven!

Revelation 5:8 tells us this:

“Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Revelation 5:8 NKJV).

Did you get that? Your prayers are so important to God that He actually keeps them in Heaven. They are like perfume to Him; their fragrance ascends to His nostrils!

Why should this matter to you?

Because you love the Lord, and you want to please Him! And every time you pray, your prayer itself is like a little present to Him; a sweet fragrance in His nostrils.

O friend, God LOVES the fact that you are taking the time to stop and talk to Him! And even if you pray and Father God seems like He’s not answering, He hasn’t ignored you! Your prayers are KEPT forever in Heaven! And don’t worry; He will answer.

Your answers have been dispatched already; they were dispatched at the moment you prayed. And, at just the right time, the Lord will “pull the trigger” and release the answer to you, bringing you the answer you need.

Reason 3: Praying persistently, without giving up, is a visible way to show God that you believe Him and His Word.

Look at these Scriptures about how true and faithful God is, and about how His Word is always true:

“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19 NKJV).

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8 NKJV).

“For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3 NKJV).

O friend, God is true. His Word is true, and He cannot tell a lie.

He actually is Truth, through and through. And if you have faith in Him, knowing that God is true, and that He cannot lie, then you know that He will do whatever He has promised.

But, His Word teaches us that we have to pray persistently.

Some folks will try to tell you that you should only pray for a thing once; then, thank God in advance for answering; and then stop praying about that thing. Those people mean well, but they are wrong! Friend, don’t follow their advice!

Why? Because Jesus Himself said that faith-filled prayer requires persistent asking.

He talked about this with an amazing parable in Luke chapter 18:

“Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: ‘There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’

And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’’

Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8 NKJV).

The passage above specifically tells us that the whole reason Jesus taught this parable is so that people would always pray and not lose heart.

Then, He told us about a widow who never stopped asking for what she wanted. She drove the judge crazy with her requests!

After Jesus told this widow’s story, He pointed out that God will do much more for us when we cry out day and night to Him! Then, however, Jesus asks the big question: when He returns, will He find faith on the earth like that widow had? Will He find us demonstrating our persistent faith by our persistent asking?

I don’t know about you, but I want Jesus to find that kind of faith in me when He returns. Don’t you?

If you do, keep on praying! Go ahead and pester our Father with your requests night and day! That kind of persistent praying is pleasing to our God. When you pray and don’t lose heart, it shows that you know He can and will give you what you desire.

Reason 4: When times are at their worst, one of the biggest solutions God gives us in His Word is to fast and pray.

Joel 2:15-17 says:

“Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast … Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, ‘Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’’” (Joel 2:15-17 NKJV).

What do you need God to do for you right now? Do you need divine intervention quickly? Do you need a turnaround, a reprieve, mercy, help, justice, and for His grace to be sufficient for you? If so, no matter what the specifics of your need look like, God’s Word gives us all a heavy-hitting solution:

Seek Him in prayer and fasting, and watch Him move miraculously on your behalf.

God may not answer your prayers exactly when you hope He will, or the way you hope He will. A lot of people get offended at God over that, and that’s when they actually need to forgive God–not for doing anything wrong (God cannot do wrong), but for not obeying their fleshly dictates.

Nevertheless, even if God doesn’t answer the way you hope He will, or in the timing you hope to see, He will answer.

If you will fast and pray, it’s like a double-barreled pipeline of blessings coming into your life. If you will pray and not lose heart, even combining fasting with your prayers, you are going to see God move in power on your behalf as you pray in faith.

Yes, friend: when you pray and fast, fast and pray, God will move all of Heaven and earth on your behalf. Therefore, if the enemy is coming against you like a flood, win the battle by praying, fasting, and praying some more! You will see change when you do.

Reason 5: Pray and don’t lose heart for the simple reason that doing so is basic obedience.

First Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to “pray without ceasing,” and that verse by itself is reason enough to pray and not faint! As believing believers who believe (see the Believer’s Manifesto here), we have to obey a thing just because God said to do it. We put our trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and that means we obey Him now–no matter what He tells us to do!

So, Jesus says to “pray without ceasing”? Our response should be, “Yes, Lord!” And even on days when we are tempted to give up and walk away from our hope and faith that He will do a certain thing, we refuse to succumb to the enemy’s temptations … and we keep on praying without ceasing, just because God says to.

Reason 6: You won’t receive anything from the Lord if you doubt.

This is a hard truth, but it IS the truth. Look at what James 1:2-8 says:

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:2-8 NKJV).

I frequently receive angry emails from readers, stating that they don’t believe God is going to do a thing for them.

Those emails make me sad, because I’ve been there–and I know how badly those people are hurting. But it also makes me sad because God’s economy operates on faith. And if you doubt, as it says in James chapter 1, you won’t receive anything from the Lord. Therefore, they are right that God isn’t answering their prayers–but it’s because of their own doubt and unbelief.

In those situations, God IS doing things for them:

• He is actually holding all their cells together by the very word of His power.
• He is putting breath in their lungs and power in their bodies.
• He is preserving them and keeping them alive.

He does that because He is good, and because He loves you. But, if you’re doubting, you are not getting the other things you are asking for because of your own doubt and unbelief.

I know it’s hard to hang in there in faith when you feel like giving up.

It can be the most tempting thing in the world to throw yourself a pity party–actually, to attend the pity party that the devil is offering to throw for you. But, you will only lose ground if you give in to self pity. If you want to move forward with the Lord, being strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, you MUST keep your eyes on Jesus …

… refusing to doubt Him, no matter what, no matter how bad circumstances look, and no matter how many problems appear to be stacked up against you …

… because whatever is not of faith is sin. As God’s Word tells us in Romans 14:

“… for whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23b).

So, friend, are you tempted to feel sorry for yourself and go down into doubt and unbelief?

If so, run from that temptation! Make extra efforts to stay in faith, like:

• Setting aside extra prayer time, and praying extra for all the things you’re tempted to give up on;
• Praying in the Spirit (speaking in tongues);
• Extra time studying the Word to build up your faith;
• Speaking God’s Word out loud over yourself;
• Maybe even adding some fasting to your prayers.

When you’re tempted to quit, you have to counter that temptation with purposeful action to build your faith. Do what it takes, friend, and don’t give up on your praying–no matter what! Even if you’ve been praying for something a long time, don’t let the enemy discourage you!

Your prayers are working, beloved, as long as you are praying in faith, in Jesus’ name, and according to the Father’s will. And if you keep on asking, you will receive. (See Matthew 7:7 above.)

Reason 7: God is not unjust to forget your work. He will reward you!

This reason is such a comfort to me on hard days–and, let’s face it: a lot of days in this life are hard for all of us. But, look at what Hebrews 6:10-12 tells us:

“For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:10-12 NKJV).

O beloved, God will not forget you–and He won’t forget your prayers, either.

Our God, Whose throne is founded on righteousness and justice, considers that it would actually be unjust to forget you, or to forget all the work you have done. (All the prayers you have prayed are part of that; He won’t forget your prayers either.)

However, God would never be unjust or unrighteous; He cannot be anything less than He is, and He is fully righteous and just and holy and kind and good. He cannot deny Himself, according to Paul’s second letter to Timothy:

“This is a faithful saying:

For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him.
If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him, He also will deny us.
If we are faithless, He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:11-13 NKJV).

Since God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love toward His name, that means He will not forget your prayers.

And that is reason enough to pray and not lose heart, my friend! Our Father would never forget your labor, your prayers, or your ministry. He remembers you, and He sees you–no matter where you are. Also, He will reward you!

God DOES hear and answer your prayers. He IS moving on your behalf right now. And if you will persist in prayer, praying and not giving up–being just as persistent as the persistent widow of Luke 18–then, through faith and patience, you will inherit the promises!

O, my beloved friend. Has the enemy been tempting you to give up and stop praying? If so, don’t listen!

Don’t let the enemy have any inroads into your life. Ask God for all that you need, want, and desire–and keep on asking. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will open. Keep on praying and praying and praying some more. No matter what, don’t give up, and don’t lose heart!

God treasures your prayers, my friend. Your prayers matter to Him, and He will move on your behalf–and you will see His answers in visible manifestation–if you will simply keep praying in faith, obeying what He tells you, and never giving up!

Beloved, do you need God’s grace to pray and not lose heart? Do you need Holy Spirit’s stick-to-it-ive power to pray and refuse to be denied, refusing to give up, until you receive that for which you have asked the Lord? Will you recommit yourself today to pray and keep on praying, and to persist in prayer?

If so, leave a comment below!