Believing Prayer by Murray Andrew

Author:Murray, Andrew [Murray, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: REL022000
ISBN: 9781441261786
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2004-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

The Power of Persevering Prayer

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up….”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.”

Luke 18:1–3

One of the greatest mysteries of prayer is the need for perseverance. That our loving Lord, so longing to bless, should have to be sought time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes, is not easy to understand. It is also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer. When after persevering supplication our prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest for our pampered flesh (and it has all the appearance of pious submission) to think that we must stop praying because God may have a reason for withholding His answer.

By faith alone the difficulty is overcome. When faith has taken its stand on God’s Word and in the name of Jesus, and has yielded itself to the leading of the Spirit to seek only God’s will and honor 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. Just as the flow of a great amount of water creates an accumulated pressure, there must often be a heaping up of prayer until God sees that the measure is full, and the answer comes. Faith knows that just as the farmer must take ten thousand steps and sow ten thousand seeds in preparation for the final harvest, so there is a need for oft-repeated, persevering prayer in order to receive a desired blessing. Faith knows that not a single believing prayer fails to have its effect in heaven; each has influence and is treasured up to work out an answer in due time to him who perseveres to the end.

Faith does not depend on human thoughts or possibilities but on the Word of the living God. Even as Abraham through so many years in hope believed against hope, and then through faith and patience inherited the promise, faith believes that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation, waiting and pressing on unto the coming of its Lord to fulfill His promise.

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 toward those whom He allows to cry day and night to Him: “He will see that they get justice, and quickly.” This will enable you, when the answer to your prayer does not come at once, to combine quiet patience and joyful confidence in your persevering prayer.

The blessing is all prepared; He is not only willing but eager to give what we ask; everlasting love burns with the desire to reveal itself fully to His beloved and to satisfy her needs.

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