PRAYER-PERSISTENCE
Perseverance
in prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance but rather laying hold of God’s
willingness. Our sovereign God has purposed to sometimes require persevering
prayer as the means to accomplish His will.
Bill Thrasher
A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p.
189-190.
Why has God
chosen to work through persevering prayer?
1.
To
purify our desires. Sometimes we may want the right thing for the wrong
reasons.
2.
To
prepare us for His answer. A premature answer might cause us to glory more in
the gift than in the Giver.
3.
To
develop our life and character. We have already stated that one of God’s
greatest priorities in prayer is the work He desires to do in us.
4.
To
be used of God in spiritual warfare. Although we are not told a great bit of
detail about the exact nature of the angelic conflict in the heavenlies, we are told enough to be assured of the reality
of it.
5.
To
bless us with a more intimate relationship with God. An aspect of delighting in
a person is delighting in conversing with them. The joy of fellowship with a
prized person is the greatest treasure.
Bill Thrasher
A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p.
190-191.
There is a
difference between a fleshly stubbornness and a godly perseverance. The former
insists on getting one’s will done in heaven, and the
latter determines to get God’s will done on earth.
Bill Thrasher
A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p.
192-193.
Aids to
persevering intercession: appeal to God’s attributes (Psalms 51:1), appeal to
God’s promises (Genesis 32:9-12), appeal to God’s honor or reputation (Exodus
32:12; Psalm 25;11; Psalm 115:1), appeal to the need of God’s people (Exodus
14:10; Psalm 86:1), appeal to God’s past action (Psalm 4:1), appeal to our
union with Christ (Romans 15:30), appeal to the truth that God may be known
(Exodus 33:13).
Bill Thrasher
A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p. 194.
Sometimes a
failure to persist in prayer proves that we were not serious about our request
in the first place. At other times God wants us to persist in prayer in order
to strengthen our faith in Him. Faith would never grow if all prayers were
answered immediately. Persistent prayer tends to develop deeper gratitude as
well. As the joy of a baby’s birth is greater because of the months of
anticipation, so is the joy of an answer to prayer after persistent praying.
And as much as a generation that measures time in nanoseconds hates to admit
its need for it, God crafts Christlike patience in us when He requires persistence
in prayer.
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 81, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com,
All rights reserved.
For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
We are
sometimes tempted to think that we get no good by our prayers, and that we may
as well give them up altogether. Let us resist the temptation. It comes from
the devil. Let us believe, and pray on. Against our
besetting sins, against the spirit of the world, against the wiles of the
devil, let us pray on, and not faint. For strength to
do duty, for grace to bear our trials, for comfort in every trouble, let us
continue in prayer. Let us be sure that no time is so well-spent in every day,
as that which we spend upon our knees. Jesus hears us, and in His own good time
will give an answer... He may sometimes keep us long waiting...but He will
never send us empty away.
J.C.
Ryle
Commentary, Matthew 15.
Importunate
praying is the earnest inward movement of the heart toward God.
E.M. Bounds
George Muller
observed, “The great fault of the children of God is, they do not continue
in prayer; they do not go on praying; they do not persevere. If they desire anything for God’s
glory, they should pray until they get it.”
Roger Steer
George Muller: Delighted in God! Harold Shaw,
1975, p. 310
There is no
power like that of prevailing prayer, of Abraham pleading for Sodom, Jacob
wrestling in the stillness of the night, Moses standing in the breach, Hannah
intoxicated with sorrow, David heartbroken with remorse and grief, Jesus in
sweat of blood. Add to this list from the records of the church your personal
observation and experience, and always there is the cost of passion unto blood.
Such prayer prevails. It turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings
power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God.
Samuel Chadwick
It is not
enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a
time to pray; but we must pray patiently, believing, continue in prayer until
we obtain an answer.
George
Muller
Suppose
that we believers in the Lord Jesus make our requests to God. Suppose also
that, as far as we can honestly judge, the obtaining of our requests would be for
our spiritual good and for the honor of God. We must then continue in prayer until the blessing is given to us. Furthermore,
we have to believe that God does hear
us and will answer our prayers. Frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained and in not expecting the blessing. As assuredly as
any individual uses these points, so assuredly will his requests be granted.
George
Muller
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p. 219.
All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used with
permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at Christian
bookstores everywhere.
Asking with
shameless persistence, the importunity that will not be denied,
returns with the answer in hand.
Author Unknown
Persistent
prayer is an enduring evidence of faith.
Author
Unknown
In prayer we
do not “prevail on” God, but rather prevail on ourselves to submit to God.
True, the language of “prevailing on God” is often used in regard to prayer,
but it is an accommodation to human weakness. Even when Jacob “prevailed on
God,” what really happened is that God prevailed over him, bringing him to the
point of surrender when he was able to receive the blessing which God had all
the time been longing to give Him
John Stott
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, IVP, 1978, p.
186.
Storm the
throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.
John Wesley
Some people
think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The
way to trouble God is not to come at all.
D.L. Moody