And h e spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint . . . . And the Lord said, H ear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though h e bear long w ith them? I tell you that h e will avenge them speedily. . . . — L u k e 18:1-8 O f all the mysteries of the prayer world, the need of persevering prayer is one of the greatest. That the Lord who is so loving and longing to bless should have to be suppli cated time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes, we cannot easily understand. It is also one of the greatest practi cal difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer. When after per severing supplication, our prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest for our slothful flesh, and it has all the appearance of pious submission, to think that we must now cease praying because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer. It is by faith alone that the dif ficulty is overcome. When once faith has taken its stand upon God’s Word and the name of Jesus, and has yielded itself to the leading of the Spirit to seek God’s will and honor alone in its prayer, it rleed not be discouraged by delay. It knows from Scripture that the power of believing prayer is simply irresistible; real faith can never be disappointed. It knows 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 tha^ the measure is full, and the answer comes. It knows how, just as the plowman has to take his 10,000 steps and sow his 10,000 seeds, each one a part of the preparation for the final harvest so there is a need-be for oft-repeated persevering prayer, all working out some desired blessing. It knows for certain that not a single believing prayer can fail of its effect in heav en, but has its influence and is treasured up to work out an an- swer in due time to him who per- severeth to the end. It knows that
The greatest mystery of the prayer world
Persevering Prayer
by A N D R EW M U R R A Y
so long with the answer to prayer? And why must God’s own elect so often in the midst of suffering and conflict cry day and night? He is long-suffering over them. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, being long-suffering over it, till it receive the early and the latter rain. The husbandman does indeed long for his harvest but knows that it must have its full time of sunshine and rain, and has long patience. A child so often wants to pick the half-ripe fruit; the husbandman knows to wait till the proper time. Man, in his spiritual nature too, is under the law of gradual growth that reigns in all created life. It is only in the path of development that he can reach his divine destiny. And 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 really take and keep the blessing. As a father who longs to have his only child home from school and yet waits patiently till the time of training is completed, so it is with God and His children: He is the long-suffering one and answers speedily. The insight into this truth leads the believer to cultivate the corres ponding dispositions; patience and faith, waiting and hasting, are the
it has to do not with 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 accounts that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation, waiting and hasting unto the coming of its Lord to fulfill His promise. To enable us, when the answer to our prayer does not come at once, to combine quiet patience and joy ful confidence in our persevering prayer, we must specially try to understand the two words in which our Lord sets forth the character and conduct, not 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 them what they ask; everlasting love bums with the longing desire to reveal itself fully to its beloved and to satisfy their needs. God will not delay one moment longer than is absolutely necessary; He will do all in His power to hasten and speed the answer. But why, if this be true and His power be definite, does it often last
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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