I have heard some say that we only need to just ask God ONCE, then He’ll do what we want! Jesus taught us about the unjust judge, “There was a judge who did not fear God…there was a widow…she came to him (several times), saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not…but afterward he said, ‘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.'” (Luke 18:2-5) Then Jesus says, “…shall God not avenge His own elect WHO CRY OUT DAY AND NIGHT to Him…” (Luke 18:7) Ask day and night…
Elijah prayed for all rain to stop because of the wickedness of king Ahab and his evil wife Jezebel, so it stopped raining for three years and six months. Now it was time for the rain to start again, “Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees (he was praying for rain), and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “THERE IS NOTHING.” And SEVEN TIMES HE SAID, “GO AGAIN.” Then it came to pass the SEVENTH TIME, that he said, “There is a cloud, AS SMALL AS A MAN’S HAND, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.'” (1 Kings 18:42-44) Ask until you get an answer…
This is why Jesus said, “ASK, and IT WILL BE GIVEN to you; SEEK, and YOU WILL FIND; KNOCK, and IT WILL BE OPENED to you.” (Matt. 7:7) A personal example, a while back a friend asked me to pray for their grown child who was not serving the Lord, so I was led to write a small devotion each day and pray, today I will send the 1528th devotion and pray, for how long? Until I KNOW they are born again because “I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over ONE SINNER who repents.” (Luke 15:10)
-Bill Stockham