Prayerful Persistence

“The prayers…were unsuccessful.” 

I felt a pang of anxiety as I read this email reply. As often as possible, we reach out to people who fill out prayer cards and include their contact information, letting them know we’re praying for them. Occasionally, I hear back, usually something like, “Thank you!” This reply was different. It felt almost accusatory. As if God had failed. Or we had. 

Perhaps not. It’s impossible to get tone of voice or body language from an email. But my reaction taught me that I need to grow in my relationship with prayer. It’s a challenge, and sometimes a daily struggle, for us to persist in prayer, especially when it appears “unsuccessful.”
Author and podcaster Christopher Cook calls this the “uncomfortable formation of persistent prayer.” He goes on to write:

“One thing I’ve learned is that persistence in prayer will always demand the death of self. It confronts our desire for control and autonomy. It reveals our real motivations. And it exposes whether we are praying to get something or to become mature. Elijah persisted because he had become the kind of man who would. And that’s what’s at stake. Not just the rain. You.”

Cook refers to the story of the prophet in 1 Kings 18, contrasting Elijah’s spiritual maturity with our own. 
We’ve been shaped to expect results. We want what we want when we want it. Some of that is sin, and some of it is simply the formation of culture. We don’t go to the movies anymore. We stream. We don't grab the remote anymore; we yell. “Siri!” Or, “Alexis!” We cook less and DoorDash more.

Why? Because we've been discipled into immediacy.

However, God wants to form a persistent patience in us: the fruit of the Spirit. Much of that work can, and will, happen in prayer. Listen to this simple encouragement: "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." (Romans 12:12)

In less than a year, our team has received hundreds of cards, with 500+ requests, many of them about desperate affliction. These don’t include the things on Tuesday nights we regularly share and pray for about ourselves, our loved ones, and our friends. Taken together, it’s a lot, and it’s understandable if some of us are feeling the weight of these overwhelming demands. There’s a reason compassion fatigue is labeled “fatigue.” 

This can happen when our prayer life becomes largely transactional, focusing on getting results. Please hear me: it’s not wrong to want something good when we ask God to heal, deliver, and provide for others. This is not a disordered desire. However, it can be an exhausting motivation. The only sure cure is to remind ourselves that the primary purpose for prayer is communion: to be with God in His Presence. To linger with Him in the midst of our requests. 

I believe with all my heart; that’s the point of persistent prayer.

When we intercede for others, we are not giving God information He doesn’t have. We are not permitting Him to do something He might otherwise be constrained from doing. So, why pray? 

Because God delights in the communion of His children, and the work of prayer provides fertile ground for that heart-to-heart connection. It helps us put down deep roots in Him, growing and flourishing as a faithful, non-anxious presence in the lives of those we love, serve, and pray for.

This approach also offers us the freedom to persist in prayer. To trust wholly in the Good God we increasingly know with deeper intimacy. To let the outcomes of our requests rest in His loving, capable hands, coming away from prayer refreshed and at peace, knowing our Father has heard us. That He has been with us in the Person of the Son through the abiding Presence of the Spirit.

So, when you pray, take a breath. Feel the animating spark of God's ruah in yourself. Enjoy being with Him. Pray like it matters, because it does. To the ones you pray for, and to you. 

Love ya!

 Pastor Steve