There is a sense in which it is like chopping down a tree. There is this big 3 foot wide oak and you are beginning to hit the outer surface. Then you get tired and you come back to it with more determination and more perseverance.But the more you hit that to toward the center the harder it gets to chip. And then you grow weary of hitting that hard wood. You determine that this time its going  to fall. This time your going to see it fall with that last blow. But it doesnt , every thing is silent. Thats the way God works. We pray and we pray, we meditate and we get a certain assurance. But the assurance is not very strong , so we pray in the Holy Spirit and we pray in the word. We feel stronger after the initial perseverance. But then we grow weary again. God seems to be silent. Yes we get a number of assurances that He is listening  and we can feel the tree starting to crack but there is not enough there. So we go months, sometimes yrs, i mean really crying out. We cry, we groan, we complain, we question. But still there is no answer. We are worn out trying to find that answer. We go to praying again and again. Even tho there is a certain assurance still it is not the word that is spoken that we are so wanting to hear. Oh how we persevere. We begin to understand that pray is the absolute hardest persevering means we have in this life. And then all of a sudden there is the boom, there is the word, it is Gods time, all along it was there for us, all along there was God who was planning to answer. And oh, how we see this power of God to create a miracle that was beyond our own to ability produce. So that we are rewarded for months and maybe yrs of knocking. This is what we learn to do as a way of life. There are these things that God rewards that are extra ordinary. If we determine to seek God in an extra ordinary way, then God will show Himself extra ordinary to us. So we want more , and we seek Him with more in tenseness.