Teach Me to Pray - Week #20: The Power of Persevering Prayer

Luke 18:1, 6-8 "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up...And the Lord said, 'Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?' I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly."

Because of my own engagement in persevering prayer, I was very encouraged by this chapter and want to urge you to let the truth of what Jesus teaches on perseverance in prayer strengthen you as you read this. This week I'll quote large portions of this chapter because it is of utmost importance in these days when there is so much to discourage God's people in prayer.

Murray opens with these wonderful words:

"Of all the mysteries of the prayer world, the need of persevering prayer is one of the greatest. We cannot easily understand that the Lord, who is so loving and longing to bless, should have to be asked time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes. This is also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer. After persevering supplication, when your prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest for our slothful self...to think that we must now cease praying because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request."

"By faith alone the difficulty is overcome...It (faith) knows from Scripture that the power of believing prayer is simply irresistible...To exercise the irresistible power it can have, faith, just like water, must be gathered up and accumulated until the stream can come down in full force. Often there must be a heaping up of prayer until God sees that the measure is full - and then the answer comes..."

The following is a core truth that we must fight to keep in front of us: "Faith knows that it deals not with human thoughts or possibilities but with the Word of the living God." (Romans 4:18; Hebrews 6:12) At times I find that the impossible circumstances in a situation loom so large that my heart loses strength if I don't fight to fix my hope on the Word of the living God which is more true than the impossibilities that are in my face. Once I stop and ponder God and what He says about Himself and about His power and desire to do the impossible, my heart finds peace again. (Sometimes the circumstances may be so overwhelming that you must lean on the faith of others for awhile.)

This portion of Scripture from Luke 18 makes reference to "putting off" or delaying the administration of justice, but then it speaks of avenging "quickly." So while God delays in answering, once the moment arrives, He avenges quickly! "He will avenge them quickly, the Master says. The blessing is all prepared. He is not only willing but anxious to give them what they ask. Everlasting love burns with the longing desire to reveal itself fully and satisfy the needs of its beloved. God will not delay one moment longer than is absolutely necessary...it is the Father, in whose hands are the times and seasons, who alone knows the moment when the soul or the church is ripened to that fullness of faith in which it can receive and maintain the blessing."

Revelation 8:3 shows that there is a filling up of the heavenly bowl of incense needed in order for the administration of the judgments that followed. It's the same principle that Murray is referring to, which is that there is a "heaping up of prayer" needed in order to reach the full measure that God is looking for before the answer to prayer is manifested. "The great danger in this school of delayed answers is the temptation to think that it may not be God's will after all to give us what we ask...Let us learn to give God time. God needs time with us...Child of God, give the Father time. He is long-suffering over you. He wants the blessing to be rich and full and sure. Give Him time, while you cry day and night."

I'll close with one more portion from this chapter and part of Murray's prayer at the end: "The blessing of such persevering prayer is unspeakable. Nothing is so heart-searching as the prayer of faith. It teaches you to discover and confess and give up everything that hinders the coming of the blessing and everything that may not be in accordance with the Father's will. It creates a closer fellowship with Him who alone can teach us to pray. It leads to a more entire surrender, to draw near under no covering but that of the blood and the Spirit. It calls to a closer and simpler abiding in Christ alone..."

"O Lord my God, teach me to know your way and in faith to grasp what your beloved Son has taught us: 'He will see that they get justice, and quickly.'...Lord, help us to understand the seasons in nature and know to wait with patience for the fruit we long for. Blessed Master...you know how quickly we grow faint and weary...Teach me how real the labor of prayer is. Show me how by giving myself completely to prayer and to live in the spirit of prayer, I will obtain what I ask....Lord Jesus, in this faith I will always pray and not faint. Amen."