If the Lord hears our prayers, why do we find it necessary to pray for the same things over and over and over again, Pastor John? Is it not enough just to pray once, and why do we pray repetitively for the same things? Well there's an obedience in it. We'll start there, because Jesus gave at least two parables in which the point of the parable was "keep on knocking." And so in the parable he said the knocking of this widow, "Give me vindication, give me vindication," wore the judge out.

So he yielded and gave her vindication, and then he said, "If that evil judge is willing to yield, then you know your God in heaven is going to yield." And yet the point was, I think the chapter begins, he told in this parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

So clearly, "Vindicate us, hallowed be your name, bring your kingdom," or "Save my lost loved one," is to be repeated. Now that does raise the question, what's the difference between that and the vain repetitions of Matthew 6, where it says, "Don't pile up your words like the Gentiles who think that they will be heard for their many words." And I think the difference is, drawing out long prayers in the hopes that multiplied clauses and sentences will somehow make our prayers more appealing to God is what he's opposed to.

A very simple, "Father, please have mercy, heal Joe." That's the sense. You don't need to say it ten different ways to make it sound good to the prayer meeting. The question is, how do you keep that from becoming vain and meaningless day in and day out? Here's the way I've done it.

I have some things that I pray for, I have some people that I care about who are not spiritually where they ought to be, and I name them before God every single day. Here are two things that I do that I think keep it from being empty repetition. One, I try to mingle into the prayer the kinds of things I'm seeing about God and learning from God in my personal devotions, so that the way I see God this morning because of what I saw in his word fills out the longings that I have for those loved ones, so that the words I use and the ways I express myself are adjusted daily by the kinds of things I'm seeing in the scriptures.

That's number one. Number two, and this is really significant, I think, suppose your wife has cancer. She's had it for a month and now you're praying. You're praying every day, "God, please don't take my wife. Don't take my wife. I need her. The children need her. Glorify your..." Now, that's going to be a simple prayer for healing every single day.

Not a lot of different ways to say "healer," right? But here's what you can say, and it's made a big difference. You can say, "Lord, today is Friday. Would you do Friday's unique work for my wife? Do Friday's work. Do the work appointed for today. Do the healing work, the sustaining work, the faith-giving work that turns all this for your glory today." So that you don't speak generically every day, you speak specifically for that day's unique challenge and that day's unique work.

Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast. Send your questions to us via email at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. Please include your first name and your hometown. Find thousands of other free resources online from John Piper at desiringgod.org. I'm your host, Tony Aranke. Thanks for listening.