Persistence

'"And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to
pray, and not to faint." Luke 18:1

'The importance of the element of persistence cannot be exaggerated. You find it, not only in biblical teaching, but also in the lives of all the saints in the past. If we really want to be men and women of God, if we really want to know Him, walk with Him, and experience those boundless blessings which He offers us, then we must persist in asking for them day by day. We have to feel this hunger and thirst after righteousness, and then we shall be filled. And that doesn't mean that we are filled once and forever. We go on hungering and thirsting. Like the Apostle Paul, leaving the things which are behind, we "press toward the mark." "Not as though I had already attained," says Paul, "but I follow after."

'That is it! This persistence, this constant desire, asking seeking, and knocking. This, we must agree, is the point at which most of us fail. Let us hold onto that first principle. Let us examine ourselves in the light of this Scripture... persistence, continuance in well-doing, "always to pray and not to faint"-- that is the first thing. The realization of the need, the realization of the supply, and persistence in seeking after it.'

-- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones