E. M. Bounds
Chapter 6
Prayer That Is Persistent
How glibly we talk of praying without ceasing! Yet, we are quite ready to quit if our prayer remains unanswered but one week or month! We assume that by a stroke of His arm or an action of His will, God will give us what we ask. It never seems to dawn on us that He is the Master of nature, as of grace, and that sometimes He chooses one way, and sometimes another, to do His work. It takes years, sometimes, to answer a prayer. When it is answered, we can look back to see that it did take years. But God knows all the time. It is His will that we pray and pray and still pray, and so come to know indeed what it is to pray without ceasing. – Anonymous
Our Lord Jesus declared that “men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). The parable that comes after these words was taught with the intention of saving men from fainthearted and weakness in prayer. Our Lord wanted to teach us to guard against negligence and to encourage and bring about persistence. We cannot have two opinions regarding the importance of the exercise of this indispensable quality in our praying.
Persistent prayer is a mighty move of the soul toward God. It is a stirring of the deepest forces of the soul toward the throne of heavenly grace. It is the ability to hold on, press on, and wait. Restless desire, restful patience, and strength to hold on are all embraced in it. It is not an incident or a performance, but a passion of soul. It is not something half-needed, but a sheer necessity.
The wrestling quality in persistent prayer does not spring from physical violence or fleshly energy. It is not an impulse of energy or a mere earnestness of the soul. It is an inward force or ability planted and roused by the Holy Spirit. Virtually, it is the intercession of the Spirit of God in us. It is “the effectual fervent prayer … [that] availeth much” (James 5:16). the divine Spirit supplies every part of us with the energy of His own striving. This is the essence of the persistence that urges our praying at the mercy seat to continue until the fire falls and the blessings descends. This wrestling in prayer is not loud or vehement, but quiet, firm, and urgent. When there are no visible outlets for its mighty forces, it may be silent.
Nothing distinguishes the children of God so clearly and strongly as prayer. It is the one infallible mark and test of being a Christian. Christian people are prayerful. The worldly-minded are prayerless. Christians call on God. The world ignores God and does not call on His name. But even the Christian has to cultivate continual prayer. It must be habitual, but it must be much more than a habit. It is duty, yet it is one that rises far above and goes beyond the ordinary implications of the term. It is the expression of a relationship with God, a yearning for divine communication. It is the outward and upward flow of the inner life toward its original fountain. It is a statement of the soul’s origin, a claiming of sonship that links man to the eternal.
Prayer has everything to do with molding the soul into the image of God. It also has everything to do with elevating and enlarging the measure of divine grace. It has everything to do with bringing the soul into complete communion with God. It has everything to do with enriching, broadening, and maturing the soul’s experience of God. A man who does not pray cannot possibly be called a Christian. There is no possible way that he can claim any right to the term or its implied significance. If he does not pray, he is a sinner, pure and simple. Prayer is the only way the soul of man can enter into fellowship and communion with the source of all Christlike spirit and energy. Therefore, if he does not pray, he is not of the household faith.
In this study, however, we will turn our attention to one phrase of prayer — persistence. It is the pressing of our desires on God with urgency and perseverance. It is praying with the kind of courage and tension that neither relaxes nor stops until its cry is heard and its cause is worn.
The man who has clear views of God, has scriptural conceptions of the divine character, appreciates his privilege of approach to God, and understands his inward need of all that God has for him will be eager, outspoken, and persistent is mentioned. Praying that influences God is said to be the outpouring of the fervent, effectual righteous man. (See James 5:16.) It is a prayer on fire. It does not have a feeble, flickering flame or a momentary flash, but it shines with a vigorous, steady glow.
The repeated intercessions of Abraham for the salvation of Sodom and Gomorrah present an early example of the necessity for and benefit derived from persistent prayer. The case of Jacob, wrestling all night with the angel, gives significant emphasis to the power of a dogged perseverance in prayer. It shows how, in spiritual things, persistence succeeds just as effectively as it does in matters relating to time and sense.
Moses prayed forty days and forty nights to stop the wrath of God against Israel. His example and success are a stimulus to present-day faith in its darkest hour. Elijah repeated his prayer seven times before the rain clouds appeared above thee horizon and heralded the success of his prayer and the victory of his faith. On one occasion, Daniel, though faint and weak, pressed his case for three weeks before the answer and the blessing came. (See Daniel 10.)
During His earthly life, the blessed Savior spent many nights in prayer in prayer. In Gethesmane He presented the same petition three times with unshaken, urgent, yet submissive persistence. This called on every part of His soul and brought about tears and bloody sweat. His life crises were distinctly marked with, and His life victories were all won in, hours of persistent prayer. So, the servant is not greater than his Lord. The parable of the persistent widow is a classic example of insistent prayer. We would do well to refresh our memories, at this point in our study, by reading the account from Scripture.
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, 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 my 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, let 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 dry and night unto him, through he bear long with them? I fell you he will avenge them speedily. (Luke 18:1-8)
This parable stresses the central truth of persistent prayer. The widow presses her case until the unjust judge yields. If this parable does not teach the necessity for persistence, it does not have any purpose or teaching. Take this one thought away, and you have nothing left worth recording. Beyond objection, Christ intended it to stand as evidence of the need that exists for insistent prayer.
We have the same teaching emphasized in the incident of the Scyrophenician woman, who came to Jesus on behalf of her daughter. Here, persistence is shown, not as rudeness, but as the persuasive equipment of humility, sincerity, and fervency. We are given a glimpse of a woman’s clinging faith, her bitter grief, and her spiritual insight. The Master went to that Sidonian country so that this truth could be shown for all time: There is no cry as effective as persistent prayer, and there is no prayer to which God surrenders Himself so fully and so freely.
The persistence of this distressed mother won her the victory and brought about her request. Instead of being an offense to the Savior, it drew from Him a word of wonder and glad surprise: “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as though wilt” (Matt 15:28).
He who does not push his plea does not pray at all. Cold prayers have no claims on heaven and no hearing in the courts above. Fire is the life of prayer and heaven is reached by fiery persistence rising in an ascending scale. Going back to the case of the persistent widow, we see that her widowhood, friendlessness, and weakness did not count for anything with the unjust judge. Persistence was everything. “Because this widow troubleth me,” he said, “I will avenge her [speedily], lest … she weary me.” Because the widow imposed upon the time and attention of the unjust judge, her case was won.
God waits patiently as, day and night, His elect cry to Him. He is moved by their requests a thousand times more than this unjust judge was. A limit is set to His waiting by the persistent praying of His people, and the answer is richly given. God finds faith in His praying child. He honors this faith that stays and cries by permitting its further exercise, so that it is strengthened and enriched. Then He rewards it in abundance.
The case of the Syrophenician woman is a notable instance of successful persistence. It is one that is highly encouraging to all who pray successfully. It is a remarkable example of insistence and perseverance to ultimate victory in the face of insurmountable obstacles and hindrances. But the woman overcame them all by heroic faith and persistent spirit. Jesus had gone over into her country, “and would have no man know it” (Mark 7:24). But she breaks through His purpose, violates His privacy, attracts His attention, and pours out to Him a distressing appeal of need and faith. Her heart was in her prayer.
At first, Jesus appears to pay no attention to her agony and ignores her cry for relief. He gives her neither eye nor ear nor word. Silence, deep and chilling, greet her impassioned cry. But she is not turned aside or disheartened. She holds on. The disciples, offended at her unseemly noise, intercede for her, but they are silenced by the Lord’s declaring that the woman is entirely outside the scope of His mission and His ministry.
But neither the failure of the disciples to gain her a hearing nor the despairing knowledge that she is barred from the benefits of His mission stop her. They serve only to lend intensity and increased boldness in her approach to Christ. She cane closer, cutting her prayer in half, and fell at His feet. Worshiping Him, she made her daughter’s case her own and cries with pointed brevity, “Lord, help me!” (Matt 15:25). This last cry won her case. Her daughter was healed the same hour. Hopeful, urgent, and unwearied, she stays near the Master, insisting and praying until the answer is given. What a study in persistence, in earnestness. They were promoted and propelled under conditions that would have disheartened any but a heroic, constant soul.
In these parables of persistent praying, our Lord stated, for our information and encouragement, the serious difficulties that stand in the way of prayer. At the same time, He taught that persistence conquers all unfavorable circumstances and gets itself a victory over a whole host of obstacles.
He taught that an answer to prayer is conditional upon the amount of faith that goes into the petition. To test this, He will delay the answer. The superficial prayer-er sinks into silence when the answer is delayed, but the man of prayer hangs on and on. The Lord recognizes and honors his faith and gives him a rich, abundant answer to his faith-evidencing, persistent prayer,
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