September 12

“Christ's lessons in regard to prayer should be carefully considered. There is a divine science in prayer, and His illustration brings to view principles that all need to understand. He shows what is the true spirit of prayer, He teaches the necessity of perseverance in presenting our requests to God, and assures us of His willingness to hear and answer prayer.”

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Do we need to add any more? Perseverance in prayer is a really important thing in keeping our relationship with God going.

Why persevere? The Apostle Paul prayed three times for his ‘thorn in the flesh’ to be removed – was that enough perseverance?

Perhaps there is an answer in the added phrase, “God … assures us of His willingness to hear and answer prayer.” We don’t need to persevere because God is out in His gardens or taking time out from intercession. God doesn’t listen to us via some heavenly intercom – which He occasionally turns off for a break from our moaning and complaining.

God, we have seen, is the best of friends, even more willing to give than even our own parents. God really wants to fulfil our needs – and often our wants – when they fall into the category of, ‘according to God’s will’.

It would appear that perseverance in prayer is not about God’s absence but our need to persevere. When we keep on praying, even about a particular issue that we keep coming back to God with, we are the ones who are helped.

That perseverance is about us keeping on recognising our relationship to God. We are admitting to ourselves, and to those people who know we pray, that we are dependent on God.

As we pray we are saying over and over again, “if it weren’t for You I could not cope.”

That of course depends on whether our persistent, persevering prayers are motivated by the right spirit, which then draws us back that initial prayer, for us to invite the Holy Spirit into our lives.

A Bible text for you, “Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.”

1 Corinthians 12:1-3

Invite the Holy Spirit into your life and your persevering prayers will be uttered in the Spirit.