keep it up

i was reading in james 5 last night and one verse talked about if you were suffering, keep praying for relief and if you had something to be thankful for, keep on praising. i was thinking that a lot of times we think all we need to do is just pray about something once and that is it. i know God hears us that one time but it isn't about the actual words, it is about the relationship.

God wants us to keep praying and asking for different reasons but i think one of them is relationship. He wants us to keep talking to Him, to keep touching base about this area of our life. it is important to us and it is important to Him so He wants to hear about it.

i think it is also about persistence on our part. is it really important to us? is it important enough to keep talking to God about it? how much time are we willing to spend on it?

and of course, patience. we need to remember it is about God's timing. so prayer is a part of actively waiting for what God has for us. we need to do our part. we have to take steps of action to bring things to be and prayer should be the first step. that is the hard one for me. i tend to try and make things happen instead of praying first to see how God wants it to happen.

Lord, help me take the right first step when i am waiting for something. help me to pray and keep on praying.