Persisting in Prayer
By Rev. John Rice
When Jesus had just finished praying, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. (Luke 11:1)” Jesus responded with the prayer that all Christians are taught as children and use throughout their lives – the powerful words of the Lord’s Prayer.
For years I thought the Lord’s Prayer was Jesus’ only immediate response to his disciple’s request, “Lord, teach us to pray.” But then I began to see that Jesus’ teaching continued in verses 5-8. It’s the story of the friend who comes to his neighbor at midnight, asking for three loaves of bread so that his late arriving visitors would have something to eat. (Luke 11:5-8)
I had always thought these words to be out of place, perhaps the result of a Biblical editor centuries ago who decided on his own to simply place this story in Luke 11. But no longer do I believe this to be true. I am convinced that in this story, Jesus continues to teach his disciples how to pray, “at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. (verse 8)”
In this story Jesus is telling us to be persistent in our prayers, to persist in the discipline of daily prayer. However, Jesus doesn’t stop there with his teaching. He now drives his point home about being persistent in prayer. Beginning at verse 9, Jesus says, “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” For everyone who (persists in asking) receives, and everyone who (persists in searching) finds, and everyone who (persists in knocking), the door will be opened.”
A similar teaching (as described by John Eldridge in his book, “Walking with God,”) appears in I Kings 18:41-46. An extended drought of three years has devastated the land. Crops have failed. Wells are drying up. Livestock are dying of thirst. So Elijah begins to pray for rain. In his prayers, Elijah believes he hears the sound of rushing rain. He and his servant go up to the top of Mt. Carmel. There, Elijah persists in praying for rain. “He bowed himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees” and prayed. He tells his servant to go and look toward the sea for the coming rain. The servant returns and says to Elijah, “ There is nothing.” Elijah continues praying and seven more times he sends his servant to look for the coming rain.
At the seventh time “ a little cloud no bigger than a person’s hand is rising out of the sea.” Elijah now tells his servant to “Go say to Anab, ‘Harness your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ In a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind; there was heavy rain.” Elijah persisted in his prayers and the rains came.
A modern day story of how persistency in prayer resulted in healing for Jim, one of our church members. In his words, “On a Saturday night late in August, I noticed that my left eye felt funny. By the next day I could not see out of that eye. The optometrist thought my retina had either torn or detached but that there was so much blood in my eye, he could not tell for sure. He made arrangements for me to see a retina specialist from Emory hospital (Atlanta, GA) the next day.
The specialist determined that it was a torn retina and that I would need immediate laser surgery. He performed the surgery but said that because of all the blood he could not see into the eye well enough to determine if he had fixed it. He told me to come back in one week.
The week passed and I was back to see the retina specialist. He looked at my eye and said it was ten times worse and he could not see into it at all. He said I would need to have more surgery the following Thursday. He also said to check in with him the day before the surgery so he could look at the eye again but that ‘it would be miraculous’ if I did not have to have surgery on Thursday.
When we got back home later that day, the Pastoral Care Coordinator from our church called my wife to ask if we would like to have the church’s prayer chain pray for me. Without hesitation, my wife said yes. (Persistency in prayer began!
On Sunday, my wife and I went for healing prayers following the worship service. Fr. John and one of the prayer teams prayed for us. (Persistency in prayer continued!)
On Tuesday evening, my wife and I went to the soaking prayer healing service at out church where four awesome members of the parish prayed for my recovery. (Persistency in prayer!)
The next day we went back to the retina specialist. When he looked at my eye, he said, ‘I can’t believe it. I can see in there.’ I told him it was the power of prayers of a fantastic congregation. He cancelled the surgery and told my wife and me that we could go on our vacation trip.
After I told my story at church on the following Sunday, I received an email from another church member saying how she was thinking of giving up on the prayers she was offering for her son who has cancer. However, when she heard my story, she resolved her efforts in prayer and a week later told me that her son’s attitude had changed for the better.” The power of prayer!
God is so good! Our persisting in prayer for Jim was needed for only a short period of time, just a week. However, there has been so many times where we needed to persist in prayer for six months to a year for other individuals before they experienced the healing of such ailments as a torn rotator cuff, prostate cancer, depression, and many other illnesses.
In each case, the individual was receiving good medical care. To the medical care we began to blend persistent prayers for healing.
Persisting in prayer is one of God’s prescriptions for wellness and wholeness. I pray that Jim’s story, especially in how the Spirit worked through persistent healing prayer, will bring renewed hope and encouragement for all of us in our healing ministries. May Jesus’ instruction to be persistent in prayer be embraced and live out in all areas of our lives!
The Rev. John Rice is an OSL Board Member and lives in Hayesville, NC.
March/ April 2010