The case for persisting in prayer.
Perhaps the most unpopular concept regarding the practice of prayer is persistence. Is it really necessary to bring the same request to God time and time again? Or does such repetition represent a serious lack of faith?
Whatever our misgivings about coming before the all-knowing, all-powerful God with the same petitions over and over, persistence is scriptural. It is an essential element in New Testament praying. And Christ himself taught its necessity and importance.
Christ-Taught Persistence
Jesus powerfully and clearly taught the necessity of dogged persistence in his moving parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18:1–8).
In verse 1, Luke declares explicitly the reason for the parable: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (NIV). The word should indicates not merely the duty, but the necessity of persistence in prayer. (In other words, persistence is not only nice, but necessary to effective prayer.) And the word always should be understood as praying continually or persistently in spite of the temptation to give up because of delayed answers.
The parable centers on two characters: a corrupt judge and a needy widow. The corruption of the judge is vividly set forth by the double characterization, “who neither feared God nor cared about men.” This points up the unlikelihood of anyone receiving his consideration.
The petitioner is someone seemingly very unlikely to prevail before this self-centered magistrate. (The first-century audience knew that widows were utterly helpless.) This particular widow, however, has a weapon: persistent petition.
Her action is set forth with the verb “kept coming.” She made not one appearance before the judge, but many. Jesus highlights this woman’s action with the response of the judge when he says, “For some time he refused” (v. 4). The woman kept coming and the judge kept refusing.
Eventually, however, the woman’s persistence prevailed. It was solely this persistence and nothing else that caused the judge to grant her request. Verse 5 furnishes an interesting insight into the judge’s reasoning: “so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming.”
Having thus illustrated the effective power of persistent prayer, the Lord applies the truth to the audience. He centers the significance of the parable on the judge’s statement, “Though I’m still a ruthless judge, I have decided to grant this woman’s petition because by her continual coming she is driving me out of my mind!” The judge freely acknowledges that the request was granted because of the pressure of the woman’s persistence.
Next, the Lord attempts to bring his listeners to an understanding of the parable’s critical lesson regarding the practice of prayer (v. 7). The words “And … God” are emphasized in the original text. The word translated and is actually a mild adversative contrasting God with the judge. It could just as well be translated “but … God.” All that the judge is, God is not. All that the Lord is, the judge is not. The judge cared for neither God nor man. God, on the other hand, is exactly the opposite. The judge was selfish, our God is loving. The judge was unjust, our God is just.
But while a basic contrast exists between God and the judge, there is one point of similarity—their delayed response. God, like the judge, does at times delay responding to the cries of his children. Note that the assurance that God will indeed bring about justice is given to those “who cry out to him day and night.” Thus justice is promised by God in response to persistent crying out in prayer.
The judge, of course, delayed out of selfish indifference, but this is never why God delays. Hence another contrast: Whenever God delays it is the tarrying of love. God’s delay is always part of the “all things” that he is causing to work together for good (Rom. 8:28).
The answer, then, to the rhetorical question “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones?” requires the positive answer, “He certainly will.” Jesus makes this affirmative answer explicit in his next statement (v. 8): “I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.” Clearly, persistent prayer will get results.
The word translated “quickly” has appeared to some to contradict the concept of delayed response. But such need not necessarily be the case. The phrase translated “quickly” is built around a noun that has the root meaning of “speed, swiftness, haste.” A form of the same word is used in Revelation 22:20 where Christ promises, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Yet, it has now been almost 2,000 years and Christ still has not come. However, when he does come, he will not be dilatory; he will swiftly descend from heaven, destroy his enemies, and set up his kingdom.
So it is with the prayerful crying out of his children. Though there appears to be a delay, when the time arrives for God to answer, he will do it—quickly.
Christ-Practiced Persistence
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ practiced what he had preached. Under extreme emotional and spiritual pressure, the kenotic Christ sought assistance through prayer. All three biblical accounts indicate continuous action in describing his praying. Indeed, these late night prayer sessions were far longer than the recorded portions.
This is emphasized by the fact that Christ, after each session of prayer, returned to find his disciples asleep (Mark 14:37). Christ obviously did not simply offer the petition found in the Synoptics once and then return to his disciples. (This would hardly have allowed them time to have fallen asleep.) Instead, his recorded petition represents the synopsis of a longer prayer session revolving around the single theme, “Let this cup pass from me.”
Christ-Commanded Persistence
So important is the principle of prayer persistence that the Lord not only taught and practiced it, but he also commanded it.
Following the parable of the importunate friend (Luke 11:5–8), Christ proceeded categorically to command persistence. In Luke 11:9 and 10, there is an exhortation to perseverance in prayer.
The three commands “ask,” “seek,” and “knock” are voiced in the present tense, indicating Jesus’ desire to emphasize persistent prayer. These commands should be translated “keep on asking … keep on seeking … keep on knocking” (Williams translation).
Just as surely as Christ commanded his disciples to love one another (John 13:31) and preach the gospel (Mark 16:15), he also commanded them to pray persistently!
Such persistence, however, must never be confused with vain repetition. Christ clearly taught the former but condemned the latter (Matt. 6:7–8). His prohibition was never against the repetition of a petition as such. Indeed, Christ’s repetition of his request to the Father in Gethsemane reveals that vain repetitions do not outlaw repeating the same request. It is not the repetition that is forbidden, but the fallacy that repetition itself is efficacious.
The Pharisees used such methods. A rabbinic maxim stated, “Everyone that multiplies prayer is heard.” But Christ forbade the mechanical repetition of a formula as if it were a magical charm. Persistence in petition is vastly different. It is prompted by the burden of a heart driven by an overpowering urgency that continues to cry out day after day to the Father—even as Christ did in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Rationale For Persistent Prayer
The rationale behind prayer-persistence is, to say the least, baffling. Christ never taught why we are to pray persistently to a God already interested in and informed about our welfare. He did, however, make it abundantly clear that perseverance in prayer was never advocated to wear God out or cause him in exasperation to grant a request. God is not like the awakened friend or the unjust judge. Importunity in prayer is never to change God. God does not need to be changed. God cannot possibly become more willing.
However, when the solution to a problem is sought, two basic truths must be kept in mind: (1) The one who knows the answer must be willing to give it, and (2) The one seeking the answer must be able to receive it. Importunity is an instructor in God’s school of Christian development. In short, God does not become more willing to answer because of perseverance, but the petitioner may become more capable of receiving the answer.
Human beings are not static. Our capacity to understand and profit by an answer to prayer changes. Thus, importunity can be viewed as a means of enlarging our own capacity to receive what God desires to give. Prayer is not to make God more like man, but to make man more like God.
The same thing could be said for gaining information from the Scriptures. Why does God demand diligent study (2 Tim. 2:15)? Why does he not give us a complete mastery of the truths of Scripture at the moment of conversion? Certainly God is capable of doing that, but clearly he does not do so. He obviously is using diligent study as a pedagogical tool in the furtherance of our sanctification. Just as God accomplishes some things in our lives by diligent study, he accomplishes other things by the discipline of persistent asking.
Perseverance can often have the effect of clarifying and segregating in our minds deep-seated desire from fleeting whim. It is only when a thing is strongly desired that we will ask earnestly and persistently. Thus, persistence in prayer inevitably purifies. It purifies the petitions, for with repeated expression, desires are either confirmed or condemned, and choice is matured.
But more than this, persistence purifies the petitioner. A habit of daily presentation before God of one’s most secret desires can only lead to a purification of the soul. Constant importunate prayer can strengthen desire and prepare the soul for full appreciation and right use of the answer.
Without the demand for persistence in effective praying, Christians would become terribly complacent. If all we had to do was ask the Father for something once and then sit back and wait until the request were granted, our humanness (ever prone to independence) would inevitably lead to self-sufficiency. But by God conditioning our prayer success on importunate asking we are made aware of our dependence—that we need him every hour! Writes P. T. Forsyth:
“Lose the importunity of prayer, reduce it to soliloquy, or even to colloquy, with God, lose the real conflict of will and will, lose the habit of wrestling and the hope of prevailing with God, make it mere walking with God in friendly talk; and, precious as it is, yet you tend to lose the reality of prayer at last. In principle you make it mere conversation instead of the soul’s great action. You lose the food of character, the renewal of will. You may have beautiful prayers—but as ineffectual as beauty so often is, and as fleeting.”
