Persistence in Prayer - Romans 1-2

Perhaps the hardest thing for me to do is ask God more than once for something. For some reason I feel guilty or that I am demonstrating a lack of faith or I believe that I must have done something wrong and God would have answered my prayer if He wanted to or worse I am not good enough for Him to answer. Thankfully we can read God's Word and be encouraged and corrected in this poor thought pattern. Paul, in Romans 1:10-15 gives us some insight into his own personal prayer closet. He tells the church at Rome that he "often" prayed to God asking for God's will to allow him to travel to them for the purpose of imparting some spiritual blessing. He says, however, he was "often" hindered in traveling to Rome (v. 13). We do not always know what is going on with our prayers to God. In Daniel 10 we read that Daniel's prayers were hindered when the angel delivering God's answer was hindered by Satan. I doubt if Satan worries too much about my prayer life, but we need to be encouraged in our prayer time to ask God persistently for what He lays on our hearts. We should be asking Him to keep the burden of a particular prayer alive if "He so wants" it in our hearts. If He keeps it in our hearts we should keep it on our lips. Don't let poor thought patterns hinder your prayers. Even the great Apostle Paul had to be persistent.