Then Jesus taught the followers that they should always pray and never lose hope… (Luke 18:1, ERV)
To persist in prayer and not give up does not mean endless repetition. Meaningless or painfully long prayer sessions. Is there a specific pathway to prayer? How does prayer work to God’s glory?
The answer is easy because the gospel is simply wonderful and wonderfully simple. The path to prayer is by the promises of God.
Constant prayer means keeping our requests continually before God by the way that we live for Jesus day by day, believing he will answer. When we live by faith, we are not to give up. Thats why Hebrews 11:1 calls faith “substance of things hoped for” “evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1)
God’s promises are the only thing in Scripture that fits this definition of the substance of things hoped for. Evidence of things not seen. A promise is made for every forseeable and unforseeable circumstance we encounter in life. But as we know all too well, we often do not see how it will be done. The promise is always there for every need.
We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God’s own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness. God made great and marvelous promises, so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world. (2 Pet 1:3-4, CEV)
The power to lead a godly life comes from God. (John 1:12) Because we don’t personally have the resources to be truly godly, God allows us to “share his divine nature” in order to keep us from sin and help us live for him. When we are born again, God by his Spirit empowers us with his own goodness. The beginning point of faith is believing in God’s character: He is who He says in His Word that He is. The end point is believing in God’s promises: He will do what he says. When we believe that God will fulfill his promises even though we don’t see those promises materializing yet, we demonstrate true faith
We pray. And yes. God may delay answering. His delays always have good reasons. As we persist in prayer, we grow in character, faith, and hope. As we persist in prayer, God’s character, faith, and hope will grow in us. The power to lead a godly life comes from God. Because we don’t have the resources to be truly godly, God allows us to “share his divine nature” in order to keep us from sin and help us live for him. When we are born again, God by his Spirit empowers us with his own goodness. See John 3:6;John 14:17-23; 2 Cor 5:21; and 1 Pet 1:22-23.
No temptation in the life of intercessory prayer is more common than the failure to persevere.
We begin to pray for a certain thing; we put up our petitions for a day, a week, a month; and then, receiving as yet no definite answer, straightway we faint, and cease altogether from prayer concerning it. This is a deadly fault. Deadly to the spiritual life. It is the snare of many beginnings with no completions. It will ruin all areas of our life if we let it.
The one who forms the habit of beginning without finishing has simply formed the habit of failure. The one who begins to pray about a thing and does not pray it through to a successful issue of answer has formed the same habit in prayer. To faint is to fail; then defeat begets disheartenment, and unfaithfulness in the reality of prayer, which is fatal to all successful spiritual life.
But someone says, “How long shall we pray? Do we not come to a place where we may cease from our petitions and rest the matter in God’s hands?” There is only one answer to that. Pray until the thing you pray for has actually been granted, or until you have the assurance in your heart that it is turning out the way that God would have it.
Prayer is not only a calling upon God, but also a conflict with Satan. And inasmuch as God is using our intercession as a mighty factor of victory in that conflict, He alone, and not we, must decide when we dare cease from our petitioning. So we dare not stay our prayer until the answer itself has come, or until we receive the assurance that it is being answered in the way that Jesus feels is best. But we would be remiss to think that all prayer have to have a yes answer all the time. Often the answer is yes, bot also it can be “no” “maybe” “if” because most times God’s answers to our prayers are geared to what we need the most.
In the first case we stop praying because we see. In the others, we stop because we believe, and the faith of our heart is just as sure as the sight of our eyes; for it is faith from,yes,the faith of God, within us.
More and more, as we live the prayer life, shall we come to experience and recognize this God-given assurance, and know when to rest quietly in it, or when to continue our petitioning until we receive it.
What we need most to do is to wait in quietness and trust with each promise until Jesus meets us there. Jesus will always return to us by way of His promises:
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Pet 1:3-4,KJV)
We must NOW acquaint ourselves with God by proving His promises…” (GC 622)
We must learn of Christ. We must know what He is to those He has ransomed from the grave. (John 17:3) We must realize that through belief in Him it is our privilege to be partakers of the divine nature, at the foot of the cross; and through His promises, and so escape the corruption that is in the world through wrongful desires. Then we are cleansed from all sin, and the blood of The Lamb becomes the gospel by which we are saved.
In the past you were dead because you sinned and fought against God. You followed the ways of this world and obeyed the devil. He rules the world, and his spirit has power over everyone who doesn’t obey God. Once we were also ruled by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds. We had made God angry, and we were going to be punished like everyone else. But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God’s wonderful kindness is what saves you. (SEE 2:4) God raised us from death to life with Christ Jesus, and he has given us a place beside Christ in heaven. (Eph 2:1-6, CEV)
It is a knowledge of the perfection of the divine character, manifested to us in Jesus Christ, through His promises that opens up to us communion with God. It is by appropriating the great and precious promises that we are to become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through wrongful desires.
Recently a lady stood up in church and asked us to pray for her son who was struggling with addiction. I asked her after the sermon if I could come to visit her son, who is staying at her house during his recovery. They were so shocked that anyone would want to sit and visit with him. He was unable to get out of his bed during that visit, and when I took his hand and prayed with him, I felt the Moms hands on one side, and the Dad’s hands on the other side, taking my hands, and their sons, and The Holy Spirit really spoke to us during that season of prayer. I just claimed the promise of Eph 2:13 how that
“those who are far off are made near by the blood of Christ.”
There were lots of tears. Now that was actually two weeks ago, and PTL that young man was cutting grass the other day! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Truly, the path of prayer is by His own “precious promises.”
Who does Jesus want you to sit and pray with today? What “precious promise” will you “prove” in His service by the way you live your everyday life with all that our Lord puts in your path?