David and Bristol Connecticut writes in and asks this, pastor John, over the last year,

the Lord has taught me much about prayer, both by study of his word and by lots of doing

and failing at it.

While I'm sure there will always be some mystery to prayer, the one thing that I've always

struggled with is how to know if and when to stop praying for something, especially related

to 1 John, chapter 5, verses 14 to 17.

Because God's timing is rarely if ever ours, how do we know when to persevere and asking

him for something and when to stop?

Because nothing is changing and it seems to be God saying no.

Well, this is one of these questions where I'm going to see how much I can say when I

don't know the answer.

And I hope it's not fog and I'm saying it up front so everybody will know it's not,

I'm not trying to hide it.

I don't know for sure, but this may help.

It helps me to think out loud like this.

Isn't it significant?

I think it is.

Now, in the Bible, we have a statement, you have not because you asked not, James 4.2,

but we don't have a statement.

You prayed too much or too long.

We don't have a statement that says, you have things I did not want to give you because

you kept on asking me when it was time to quit.

...