Is Repeating The Same Prayer Doubting? by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Wrong Ideology: Praying the Same Thing Again Is Doubt

A common misunderstanding is that if a person has prayed about something once and they pray it again, it means they don't believe. Another version of this is: "If God already knows what I need before I ask, why pray at all?"

These questions reveal a misunderstanding of what prayer is for.

Prayer is not primarily making requests. Prayer is receiving wisdom on how to appropriate what God has already promised. Abraham was not praying to get God to promise him a son — God had already made the covenant. What Abraham needed was the wisdom and alignment to walk into its fulfilment. When you pray, you are not informing God of a need he is unaware of. You are positioning yourself to hear what to do.

If you are trusting God for a job, there are no jobs in heaven. What he gives you is wisdom — how to adjust your approach, who to speak to, where to apply. That is what prayer produces.

Luke 18: The Persistent Widow — What It Really Means

Luke 18:1–8 — Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow who pressed the unjust judge for justice. The key is in verse 8: "When the Son of Man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?" That faith is persistence on what was heard — because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

The importunity being described is staying on a promise. The widow was pressing for what was rightfully hers — justice, a covenant right. She was not manufacturing a new request. She was refusing to let go of what was already owed to her.

Praying persistently about the same thing is not doubt. It is faith refusing to let go of a promise.

What Waiting Produces

God wanted to come into this world, and he employed someone to pray him down for 50 years. That prayer gave him entry. If you do not pray, you will not see his goodness. The Son of God himself had a prayer life. Almighty God came to this earth and prayed. Do not treat prayer as optional.

The deepest truth about waiting in prayer is this:

What you get is manifestation. What he gets is a better version of you.

He can only produce that version of you through the waiting period. The anxiety that surrounds a request must die. That is what God is often addressing before he addresses the situation.

Philippians 4:6–7 — "Be careful for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will garrison your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

God is not only answering the prayer. He is answering the anxiety. When you go to him anxious, he says: forget the situation for a moment — why don't you believe me? The waiting takes away the anxiety. Once the anxiety is gone, the request is released.

Situations do not only happen to be changed. Situations happen to change you.

After that prayer, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will garrison your heart — and the people around you will think you are irresponsible for how at rest you are. That is not irresponsibility. That is the peace of God.