Learning Persevering Prayer
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus responds to a question posed by His disciples:
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples. He said to them, When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test. (Luke 11:1-4)
From His response, we derive the prayer we were taught as children, the Our Father. However, Jesus is revealing a framework for living in communion with the Father. Christian prayer is living in an ongoing communion with the Father, who communicates Himself to us completely in His Son.
When we live in this communion, life becomes a classroom where we learn the truth about who we are in Jesus. Through prayer, we receive new glasses through which to see the landscape of life. Darkness is dispelled by the light of the Holy Spirit. We may still struggle with disordered appetites. We may stumble and even, at times, fall back into living at odds with God’s plan. However, through prayer we find the Way back home.
Through prayer, we begin to comprehend what it means to be partakers of the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4). Our life becomes a participation in the inner life of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Though that participation will only be complete when we are with Him in the fullness of His embrace — in Resurrected Bodies in a New Heaven and a New Earth — it begins even now — through prayer.
Isaac of Ninevah, an early eighth century Bishop wrote concerning Christian Prayer:
When the Spirit dwells in a person, from the moment in which that person has become prayer, he never leaves him. For the Spirit never ceases to pray in him. Whether the person is asleep or awake, prayer never from then on departs from his soul. Whether he is eating or drinking or sleeping or whatever else he is doing, even in deepest sleep, the fragrance of prayer rises without effort in his heart. Prayer never again deserts him.
Let us now consider a subset of Christian Prayer, persevering prayer.
Persevering Prayer
Two parables in Luke demonstrate persevering prayer. First, in the 11th chapter, Jesus offers the parable of a persistent friend who must feed a guest by borrowing food from a neighbor:
Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.” And suppose the one inside answers, “Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. (Luke 11:5-13)
Then, in the 18th chapter, He offers the parable of the unjust judge:
Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time, the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'”
The Lord said,
Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? (Luke 18:1-8)
In His parables, Jesus used the experience of the hearers to communicate His point. Many of us do not know our neighbors, so awakening them to borrow food for a traveler in the late evening is not something we relate to. In an age where judges are front and center, that parable may hit closer to home. But the persistence of the neighbor and the widow are the main point.
Examples of Persevering Prayer
“Pray until what you seek is given, or the Lord changes your mind about what you are asking. Then, keep praying!” — Fr. Michael Scanlan
I recently re-read the call of the twelve Apostles. Jesus spent the entire night in prayer, “Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12). In His Sacred humanity, Jesus shows us the pattern for our life. In the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36-46), we witness His perseverance in prayer. In the Letter to the Hebrews we read that he offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears. (Hebrews 5:7). Jesus always persevered in prayer. Do we? When was the last time we spent the night in prayer?
It is important to remember that persevering prayer may not guarantee the result we initially sought when we began. As a young man, a priest named Fr. Michael Scanlan taught me about this aspect of persevering prayer. I wrote a tribute to him upon his passing to the Father. Newly married, when I did not see quick answers to my prayer; I often gave up. He told me, “Pray until what you seek is given, or the Lord changes your mind about what you are asking. Then, keep praying!”
In his lectures on revival, the 19th century evangelist, Charles Finney, addressed persevering prayer. In one lecture, he referred to “Xavier a missionary” noting, “he was once called to pray for a man who was sick, and he prayed so fervently that he seemed as it were to do violence to heaven — so the writer expresses it. And he prevailed, and the man recovered.” Finney was referring to Francis Xavier, the co-founder of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, a Catholic religious order in the 16th century.
Xavier and Finney understood how to persevere in prayer. Fr. Michael understood how to persevere in prayer. It is no surprise that the Lord used them all, as He has done throughout Christian history with men and women who persevered in prayer. At strategic times in the history of His Church, the Lord Jesus raises up men and women who grab hold of this invitation.
I believe we are living in just such a strategic time. Will we learn persevering prayer?
