PERSEVERING IN PRAYER… Having a Chat With Myself…

 

“Pray lest you faint” -(Luke 18:1)

One of the easiest things to do is to lose heart, grow tired, give up, question what the point is, why is the request not answered, and decide and it is a choice we make to …quit praying!

 

We live in a generation of wanting, expecting, and indeed demanding that we get everything now- fast service. We pull up to a drive-through and we complain if it’s not quick, what’s the matter, why is it taking so long? We reveal our wrong attitude with frustration, exasperation, complaining, and getting angry over the supposed delay as we see it …We expect to be served now!

We don’t like DELAYS, we want it now, and that attitude spirals into our prayer life and reveals something TO us and ABOUT us concerning our thoughts about God! That though we may not say it, in our heart of hearts we believe that He exists for us and to do what we want, when we want, and to do it now! We treat Him as though He is a Fast Food Service!

We don’t like waiting!

  • First, God does not exist for us but we for Him!
  • Second, the purpose of prayer is, His Will would come in the matter and ultimately that He would be Honored!
  • Third, my wrong attitude is often seen in my prayers and needs to be adjusted, such as “Am I asking for His Will to be done or mine in the matter? Am I asking He would ultimately be Honored or that I would and that He May do my will!”

4 REASONS WE DON’T PERSEVERE IN PRAYING;

One of the hardest and at times wearying things to do is to persevere in prayer! Some reasons are because of…

1.- DELAYS – If we don’t see answers immediately, we get frustrated, irritated, despondent, quit, give up, “throw in the towel,” and when we do, we spiral downwards, emotionally, spiritually and we spiritually “faint.” The word speaks of “bad, evil.” It is to give in to evil. In Luke 18:1 the context is what the disciples were to do between the LORD’S ministry and in between HIS RETURN. KEEP ON PRAYING! Because His return was not right away does not mean He was not coming. Keep praying… don’t lose heart, and give up, Keep praying for strength to do so. Keep praying speaks of the spirit of prayer. The atmosphere in which we are to live in. Prayer, speaking to God, referring to God. Indeed. it is to have your mind set on things above. It is engaging the mind and heart toward God. Don’t give up, be courageous, doggedly, determinedly so… keep on praying…Don’t give up while waiting for the second coming of the LORD Jesus is a motive to continue praying!

At times we can see God’s delays as His denials as did Martha who said, ” “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died…”-{John 11:21}. We tend to lean to our own understanding and not on the wisdom of God revealed through His Word!

  • Delays are not necessarily His denials but can be training us to persevere and develop our faith in Him! Don’t give up. Do continue praying and praising Him and trusting His Promises!

 

2.- DIFFICULTIES-We face Difficulties and we often stop. We focus on “the giants” and not the LORD who has promised! Persevering in prayer is Difficult often because we face real difficulties that can overwhelm us when we leave the LORD out of the equation as the disciples did in John 6:1-6.

But also because we are difficult! Difficult because we don’t like waiting, we don’t like delays, we don’t like difficulties, which is only normal. But sometimes difficulties expose a false concept that we have embraced that God should keep us from them, or He should answer our prayers immediately and when He does not, we can tend to give up persevering in praying. And in doing so we open ourselves up to spiritually fainting.

 

3.- DOUBTS– if we don’t see immediate answers to our prayers we begin to doubt… God! Can He be trusted, is His promises a hoax, though we would never say that yet our thinking shows we are not convinced they are reliable and it is an attack on God as when in the Garden the evil one used doubt to seek to attack the character of God through enticing Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”-{Genesis 3:1}. The serpent seeks to undermine what God has said, and does He really mean what He says? Doubts seek to attack the character of God and turn us aside from trusting Him as Trustworthy, honorable, reliable, and faithful to His Word. Keep persevering in praying, and feed your mind with the promises of His Word and on the character of God!

 

4.- DISOBEDIENCE– We know the truth but choose not to obey! And so we don’t persevere. We don’t see the value in it. It makes no sense to us, we have grown tired, giving in to the difficulties, delays, and adversaries and we lean to our own understanding and without saying it, such thinking is to proclaim that we feel we are wiser than God!

But perseverance is part of God’s will for us and He gives it to us.-( Rom 15:4-5).

And one area we need to exercise perseverance is in our praying. And have you personally noticed it often comes as a result of trials and troubles of various types, just as James told us that perseverance is developed in trials, and as we respond in faith, perseverance is developed. -(James 1:2-4)

Or as Paul tells us in Romans 5:3 that God uses our sufferings to bring about, achieve, and “produce perseverance.”-( Read Rom 5:3)

SO, WHY PERSEVERE?

1.- We PERSEVERE because He COMMANDS us to. -(1 Thess 5:18)

2.- We PERSEVERE because In doing so we express LOVE to Him -(James 1:12}

3.- We PERSEVERE because it’s A PREVENTATIVE-the SAFEST thing to do – for the alternative is “to lose heart,” become despondent and give up -( Luke 18:1)

  1. We PERSEVERE because we have the POWER to do so.{Phil 2:13; 2 Peter 1:3-4}

Persevere despite difficulties, opposition, adversaries, and delays. Don’t throw in the towel…keep on praying…until Jesus Returns!

Luke 18:1 is a powerful INCENTIVE to pray and a WARNING for us in this verse, “Pray lest you lose heart”- to give up, quit! The alternative to persistent prayer is- Lose Heart. {Read 2 Cor 4:1}. To give up before achieving the goal.

  • “LOSE HEART”… “Lose heart” comes from a Greek verb egkakeō, which means “to become weary,” “to give in” or “to become a coward,”{Mac A}

“the Greek word “Egkakeo conveys the idea of becoming exhausted or fainthearted in view of a trial or difficulty and therefore giving up (“throwing in the towel” to use a modern expression). This attitude is the opposite of Paul’s charge that we be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing (let this truth motivate you to keep on keeping on!) that your toil is not (absolutely is not) in vain in the Lord” {1 Cor 15:58}-{preceptaustin}

Think about it, the alternative to you pressing on in prayer be it in the good times – the sunny times, in the dark cloud moments, the changing circumstances and feelings is to give up and give in to evil, and end up in despair! GIVE UP… END UP In Despair!

And in doing so miss the opportunity to co-labor with God in the work, and express love to God through choosing disobedience.

Often our love and commitment can be measured at the point we give up trusting and obeying Him. At that point, we simply though not verbally say “I don’t believe You… You can’t be trusted!”

I don’t write this to be unkind. For I am the King of quitting,” But God…” does not GIVE UP on us, thankfully, For He who began a good work IN us will complete it. – ( Read Phil 1:6). He is working to mature us, to be Christlike.,to develop our trust in Him and one way we express that we trust Him is we persevere in praying to Him!

I love Romans 15:4-5, I have come to have much rest in it over some difficult, dark days, “these things are written they THROUGH PERSEVERANCE and THE ENCOURAGEMENT of the SCRIPTURES you might have HOPE.” Verse 5 says…God who “GIVES perseverance…” We are not asked to manufacture it but in reliance upon Him by His Spirit to work in us and strengthen us to persevere, we understand that we can and so we choose to. And if we stop? Start again, depending upon Him resting in Him to empower you to keep your eye on Him and knowing that in doing so you are Doing His will in the matter and expressing love to Him and spiritually it’s the safest for you!

Here is a verse that has encouraged me,” For God is working IN you, GIVING YOU the DESIRE and the POWER TO DO what PLEASES Him.” He works IN us and sometimes that means He has to work OUT of us those wrong attitudes such as He is a “Fast Food Service, existing to serve us!” At times I simply ask Him in different areas I struggle with to please Give me HIS DESIRE and thank Him for the accompanying Power to do what PLEASES Him. And in this case to… persevere in prayer.

But this does not mean where there is a given command we wait until we feel like it, for we will always have the power to obey…But we acknowledge our own sinfulness, and need of Him to empower us to persevere. Like Paul, He weans us of self-reliance to an increasing God dependency-(Read 2 Cor 1:9)

Over the years, especially in some of my sickest times when I have been sleep deprived, in a lot of pain, bedridden and exhausted, I have simply said,” LORD I am going to pray out of love for You,” I have had to bring my mind back to Center my motive when I have felt like giving up.

John 14:21 gives us an example of expressing love to Him through obedience and since prayer is a command…We can express love to Him through persevering in prayer, persevere out of an expressing of love to Him, you can do that through His empowerment!

Well, pain again was my alarm clock this morning, to wake me up. Painful, and with it nausea, weakness, and weariness that accompanies the diseases, and so it was difficult thinking.. despair seeking to nestle down…. and so I thought of Luke 18:1 and scribbled down the above thoughts to talk to myself to … begin to and keep praying.

Persevering in praying does not mean you do nothing but pray for twenty-four hours but it means you are alert to, and whatever the circumstances you can turn it into prayer and this is what it means to “pray without ceasing,” -( 1 Thess 1:18) Ask Him to help you, remind you to turn circumstances, and people who come to mind or you see today into prayers to Him.

  • Be Alert,
  • Be Ready,
  • Be Dependent,
  • Be Persevering….

Like riding a bike keep peddling for if you stop what happens? You often fall off …. Keep peddling… keep praying. He is trustworthy!

Well, I’ve had a little chat with myself in writing down these thoughts, and though I am not well enough to get out of bed, I can, by His grace… pray on

Love you. God bless.

Aidan.