The Power of Persevering Prayer

Tip! The entire principle of Bible teaching is to illustrate the great truth that God hears and answers prayer. One of the great purposes of God in His book is to impress on us permanently the great importance, the priceless value, and the absolute necessity of asking God for the things that we need for our time on earth and eternity.

"Then He spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.... Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" —Luke 18:1, 6-8

OF all the mysteries of prayer, the need for persevering prayer is one of the greatest and most important. We do not understand why our Lord, who so loves and longs to bless us, should have to be pleaded with time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes.

It is also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer. When, after we have persevered in prayer, our prayer remains unanswered. It is often easiest for our lazy human nature, and it has all the appearance of devout obedience, to think that we must now stop praying for what it is we so desperately want, because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request.

It is by faith alone that the difficulty is overcome. When once our faith has taken its stand on God's word, and in the Name of Jesus, and we have yielded ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit to seek God's will and honor alone in our prayer, we do not need to be discouraged by any delay.

We know from Scripture that the power of believing prayer is simply irresistible; real faith can never be disappointed.

We know how, just as water, to exercise the irresistible power it can have, must be gathered up and accumulated, until the stream can come down in full force, there must often be a heaping up of prayer, until God sees that the measure is full, and the answer comes.

We know how, just as the farmer has to take his ten thousand steps, and sow his ten thousand seeds, each one a part of the preparation for the final harvest, so there is a need for often repeated persevering prayer, all for working out some desired blessing from God.

We know for certain that not a single believing prayer can fail in its effect in heaven, but has its influence, and is treasured up to work out an answer in due time to us who perseveres to the end.

Tip! Prayer is no little thing, no selfish and small matter. It does not concern the selfish insignificant interests of one person. The littlest prayer expands out by the will of God till it touches all words, preserves all interests, and develops man’s greatest wealth, and God’s greatest good.

We know that our faith has nothing to do with our human thoughts or possibilities, but with the Word of the living God. And so even as Abraham through so many years ‘in hope believed against hope,' and then ‘through faith and patience inherited the promise,' it counts that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, waiting and hasting unto the coming of its Lord to fulfill His promise.

Faith is to enable us, when the answer to our prayer does not come at once, to combine quiet patience and joyful confidence in our persevering prayer, we must specially try to understand the two words in which our Lord sets up the character and conduct, not the way of the unjust judge, but of our God and Father towards those whom He allows to cry day and night to Him: ‘He is long-suffering over them; He will avenge them speedily.'

He will avenge them speedily, the Master says. The blessing is all prepared; He is not only willing but most anxious to give us what we ask for; everlasting love burns with the longing desire to reveal itself fully to its beloved, and to satisfy our needs. God will not delay one moment longer than what is absolutely necessary; He will do all in His power to hurry and speed the answer to us.

Tip! If I will give myself up to the inspiration of the Spirit of God, who commands me to pray, the details and the petitions of that praying will all fall into harmony with the will of Him who wills that I should pray.

Prayer:

O Lord my God! Teach me now to know Your way, and in faith to apprehend what Your Beloved Son has taught: ‘He will avenge them speedily.' Let Your tender love, and the delight You have in hearing and blessing Your children, lead me implicitly to accept Your promise, that we receive what we believe, that we have the petitions we ask, and that the answer will in due time be seen. Lord! We understand the seasons in nature, and know to wait with patience for the fruit we long for—O fill us with the assurance that not one moment longer than is needed will You delay, and that faith will hasten the answer. In Jesus' name Amen