Have you ever needed something so desperately and immediately that you pressed your case to the person who could meet that need? Have you ever pressed to the point of annoying the other person? Were you ever importunate, requesting something to the point of being a nuisance? I have rarely been importunate, but if something was negatively affecting one of my children, look out! The she-bear showed up!

At two years old, one of my children was having severe urinary tract issues. We had been in the emergency room where I had requested an ultrasound for him but was told it wasn’t medically necessary. We were sent home with a prescription. Since it was the middle of the night, my child fell soundly asleep before I could give him any of the medication, but in the morning, he awoke extremely ill – high fever and vomiting. We rushed back to the emergency room where the she-bear in me demanded the ultrasound on his kidneys and bladder. After seeing the results of the scan and blood tests, my son was admitted with an e-coli infection. I was later told that because my son had not been passing any urine, if I had given him the medication, his bladder would have burst, killing him. If I had not been importunate, it may have cost my son his life.

Sometimes we need to plead with importunity before the Lord. E.M. Bounds gives this definition of importunity: “the pressing of our desires upon God with urgency and perseverance; praying with that tenacity and tension which neither relaxes nor ceases until its plea is heard, and its cause is won” (p. 40). The Bible has many examples of importunate praying.

Perhaps the most well-known example of importunity is found in one of Jesus’ parables. In Luke 18:1-8, we read the story of the persistent widow. In the first verse, Jesus tells the purpose of the parable—"that they should always pray and not give up.” In the parable, a widow keeps harassing a judge to give her justice. It gets to the point that he can’t take it anymore and grants her request. Then Jesus says, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?”

In Exodus 32, Moses prayed 40 days and nights seeking to stay the wrath of God against Israel after they had built and worshipped the golden calf.

In I Kings 17: 19-23. Elijah prays to restore the life of a widow’s son. Three times he spread himself over the boy and prayed, “Lord, my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” The boy’s life was restored.

In the tenth chapter of Daniel, Daniel fasted and prayed for twenty-one days. Afterwards, Daniel had a vision during which he was told that his prayer was heard on the first day; however, the prince of the kingdom of Persia (some demonic force), hindered the answer from arriving until the archangel Michael intervened.

Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, prayed three times for “this cup to pass from me” (Matthew 26:39), but he followed each prayer asking that his father’s will be done.

We can learn much from these importunate prayers. From the persistent widow, we learn to keep praying, to keep pressing our need.

From Moses we learn to intercede for others who are not serving the Lord.

From Daniel we learn that evil spiritual forces may be hindering the answers to our prayers.

From Jesus we learn that no matter what we pray, it is most important to pray for God’s will.

Our prayers are always heard. Psalm 139:4 tells us that God knows our prayers before we even speak them.  And John tells us that “if we ask anything according to his [God’s] will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5: 14-15). Again, note that it says “if we ask according to his will.” And Peter writes, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer” (I Peter 3:12).

We are to pray persistently (Ephesians 6:18), fervently (James 5:17), without ceasing (I Thessalonians 4:16), with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6), and believing (Mark 11:24). And in those times when our needs weigh so heavily that we don’t even know what to pray, rest assured that the Spirit intercedes on our behalf (Romans: 26-27).

So “let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Prayer requests and answers to prayer:

Answers to pray: My gut is finally 100% back to normal – yay!! At one point I was taking multiple medications for the diarrhea, but now I take only 1 Imodium twice a day and plan to eventually ween all the way off that.

I have had no insurance issues – amazing!

I have had no further consequences of the blood clots in my lung. I will learn at my oncology appointment if I can stop the Eliquis.

The nerve ablation worked wonders in my left knee.

After numerous attempts, I learned that I cannot tolerate medical cannabis, so we quit that, but because of the nerve ablation, I have been able to sleep well. The cannabis gave me crazy nightmares that caused me to bolt upright in bed.

Prayer requests: My next PET scan is on May 28 with a meeting with my oncologist on May 30; however, I won’t be posting anything here until the following week because I am going off grid for a few days. I feel great, so I don’t anticipate there being any issues. Still, though, I tend to get a case of scanxiety every time.

I had a huge pile of blood tests this week – most of the test results were fine, and the ones that were off a bit aren’t overly concerning. We just need to monitor.