Lord, help us persevere in prayer

The Power of Persevering Prayer
by Andrew Murray

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.

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 that just as the 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.

But why 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 longs 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.

And it is the Father, in whose hand are the times and seasons, who knows the moment when the soul is ripened to that fullness of faith in which it can really take and keep the blessing.

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.

Our great danger is the temptation to think that 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.

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 that 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.

Andrew Murray (1828-1917) was the son of a Scottish-born missionary pastor in South Africa. He served for 60 years in the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa, and wrote more than 200 books and tracts on Christian spirituality and. ministry.