The Power of Persevering Prayer – By Andrew Murray
Sermon
There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded
man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying,
Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward
he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet
because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her
continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust
judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and
night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will
avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He
find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8)
Of 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 asked, time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer
comes, we cannot easily understand. It is also one of the greatest
practical difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer. When, after
persevering pleading, our prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest
for our lazy 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 to our request. It is by faith alone
that the difficulty is overcome. When once faith has taken its stand on
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 need
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 that 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, so there must often be a heaping up of
prayer until God sees that the measure is full, when the answer comes.
It knows that just as the peasant farmer has to take his ten thousand
steps to sow his tens of thousands seeds, each one a part of the
preparation for the final harvest, so there is a need for often 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
heaven, but has its influence, and is treasured up to work out an answer
in due time to him who perseveres to the end. It knows that 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 “who against
hope believed in hope” (Romans 4:18), and then “followers of them who
through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:12)
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 especially try to understand the words in which our Lord sets
forth the character and conduct, not of the unjust judge, but of our God
and Father, toward those whom He allows to cry day and night to Him: “I
tell you that He will avenge them speedily.” (Luke 18:8)
He will avenge them quickly, the Master says. The blessing is all
prepared; He is not only willing, but most anxious, to give them what
they ask; everlasting love burns 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 expedite and rush the answer.
But why, if this is true and His power is infinite, does it often
take so long for the answer to prayer to come? And why must God’s own
elect so often, in the middle of suffering and conflict, cry day and
night? He is waiting patiently while He listens to them. “Behold, the
husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long
patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.” (James
5:7) The farmer does, indeed, long for his harvest, but knows that it
must have its full amount of sunshine and rain, and he has long
patience. A child so often wants to pick the half-ripe fruit; the farmer
knows how to wait until 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 hand are the times and seasons,
who 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.
Like a father who longs to have his only child home from school, and yet
waits patiently until the time of training is completed, so it is with
God and His children: He is the patient One, and answers quickly.
The insight into this truth leads the believer to cultivate the
corresponding dispositions: patience and faith, waiting and
anticipating, are the secret of his perseverance. By faith in the
promise of God, we know that we have the petitions we have asked of Him.
Faith takes and holds the answer in the promise as an unseen spiritual
possession, rejoices in it, and praises for it. But there is a
difference between the faith that thus holds the word and knows that it
has the answer and the clearer, fuller, riper faith that obtains the
promise as a present experience. It is in persevering, not unbelieving,
but confident and praising prayer, that the soul grows up into that full
union with its Lord in which it can enter upon the possession of the
blessing in Him. There may be in these around us, there may be in that
great system of being of which we are part, there may be in God’s
government, things that have to be put right through our prayer before
the answer can fully come: the faith that has, according to the command,
believed that it has received, can allow God to take His time; it knows
it has prevailed and must prevail. In quiet, persistent, and determined
perseverance it continues in prayer and thanksgiving until the blessing
comes. And so we see combined what at first sight appears
contradictory–the faith that rejoices in the answer of the unseen God as
a present possession and the patience that cries day and night until it
be revealed. The quickness of God’s patience is met by the triumphant
but patient faith of His waiting child.
Our great danger, in this school of the answer delayed, is the
temptation to think that, after all, it may not be God’s will to give us
what we ask. If our prayer be according to God’s word, and under the
leading of the Spirit, let us not give way to these fears. Let us learn
to give God time. God needs time with us. If only we give Him time, that
is, time in the daily fellowship with Himself, for Him to exercise the
full influence of His presence on us, and time, day by day, in the
course of our being kept waiting, for faith to prove its reality and to
fill our whole being, He Himself will lead us from faith to vision; we
shall see the glory of God. Let no delay shake our faith. Of faith it
holds good: first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the
ear. Each believing prayer brings a step nearer the final victory. Each
believing prayer helps to ripen the fruit and bring us nearer to it; it
fills up the measure of prayer and faith known to God alone; it conquers
the hindrances in the unseen world; it hastens the end. Child of God,
give the Father time. He is patiently listening to you. He wants the
blessing to be rich, and full, and sure; give Him time, while you cry
day and night. Only remember the word: “I tell you that He will avenge
them speedily.” (Luke 18:8)
The blessing of such persevering prayer is unspeakable. There is
nothing so heart-searching as the prayer of faith. It teaches you to
discover and confess, and to give up everything that hinders the coming
of the blessing, everything there may not be in accordance with the
Father’s will. It leads to closer fellowship with Him who alone can
teach us to pray, to a more entire surrender to draw near under no
covering but that of the blood and the Spirit. It calls for a closer and
more simple abiding in Christ alone. Christian, give God time. He will
perfect that which concerns you. Let it be thus whether you pray for
yourself or for others. All labor, bodily or mental, needs time and
effort: we must give up ourselves up to it. Nature discovers her secrets
and yields her treasures only to diligent and thoughtful labor. However
little we can understand it, in the spiritual farming it is the same:
the seed we sow in the soil of heaven, the efforts we put forth, and the
influence we seek to exert in the world above, need our whole being: we
must give ourselves to prayer. But let us hold firm the great
confidence that in due season we will reap if we don’t give up.
And let us especially learn the lesson as we pray for the Christ’s
Church. She is, indeed, like the poor widow, in the absence of her Lord,
apparently at the mercy of her adversary, helpless to obtain
restitution. Let us, when we pray for His Church or any portion of it,
under the power of the world, asking Him to visit her with the mighty
workings of His Spirit and to prepare her for His coming– let us pray in
the assured faith: prayer does help, praying always and not stopping
will bring the answer. Only give God time. And then keep crying out day
and night. “And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And
shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him,
though He bear long with them?” (Luke 18:6-7)
THE END
[source: Here or Here]
