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Keep up praying!
Keep it up
From a reflection by Jill Weber and drawing from How to Pray by Pete Greig’s book. (Lectio 365)
P.R.A.Y.
Pause
Rejoice and Reflect
Ask
Yield
As we enter prayer now, we pause to be still; to breathe slowly; to re-centre our scattered senses upon the presence of God.
As we draw near to you God, would you draw near to us, to me? Teach me to pray. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening. ‘May I know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, day by day.’ (Prayer of Richard of Chichester)
Rejoice and Reflect
I choose to rejoice today reminding myself of God’s greatness, joining with the ancient praise of all God’s people in the words of Psalm 8:
O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.
You have taught children and infants
to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies
and all who oppose you.
Psalm 8:1–2
In prayer, we learn to keep it simple, keep it real and honest, and here we reflect on keeping it up!
We begin by reflecting on this well-known passage in Luke that teaches persistence.
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: ‘In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, “Grant me justice against my adversary.”
For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!”’
And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?’
Luke 18:1–8
We’ve all experienced it. We pray. And wait. And pray again. And wait some more. Has God not heard us? Doesn’t He care?
Asking for something in prayer is not like ordering fast food at a drive-through. If I’m honest, persevering in prayer is an offence to my ‘I want it now’ sensibilities.
Pete Greig says in his book, ‘Let’s just acknowledge that prayer can be a lot like stacking dominoes. We pray the same thing we’ve prayed one hundred times before until suddenly the whole lot comes down. The breakthrough occurs. The miracle happens. It’s not that we finally found the right formula. It’s simply that we didn’t give up praying one prayer too soon.’* Pete Greig, How to Pray (Hodder & Stoughton) p23
Ask
God, I repent of being so quick to lay aside my requests and so quick to pick up disappointment and general crankiness. Would you help me to be persistent in prayer? In the quiet I bring to mind things I have stopped praying about, and I pray for them again.
Pause for prayer.
God, I pray now for those who have lost their livelihoods.
Those whose family members are locked away in ICUs all over the world.
For those who face unsolvable problems and intractable situations.
Give them hope in your goodness.
Give them stubbornness, resilience, and grace to persevere in prayer.
And God I ask, in your time and in your way, that you would answer.
Yield
As I return to the passage, I open my ears to hear Your Word, and my heart to yield to Your will once again.
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: ‘In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, “Grant me justice against my adversary.”
For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!”’
And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?’
Luke 18:1–8
Pray. Pray again. Keep praying. That is Jesus’ exhortation in this parable.
In his book, Pete Greig says it this way: ‘But here is the great and inescapable truth, taught in Scripture, modelled by Christ and advocated without exception by all the heroes of our faith: you cannot grow in prayer without some measure of effort and discomfort, self-discipline and self-denial. Just as you cannot get physically fit without regular exercise and a healthy diet, so your spiritual growth will be determined, to a very significant extent, by the prayer exercises you choose (or do not choose) to establish and sustain’. (Pete Greig, How to Pray (Hodder & Stoughton) p24)
Pause to pray –
God, I yield to persistence. I yield to self-discipline. Most of all I yield to your timing. You are God and I am not. Help me to keep on praying. Help me to keep it up.
Today, I stand on God’s promise in Isaiah 40:29. Thank you that you give strength to the weary and increase the power of the weak.
Closing Prayer
Father, help me to live this day to the full,
being true to You, in every way.
Jesus, help me to give myself away to others,
being kind to everyone I meet.
Spirit, help me to love the lost,
proclaiming Christ in all I do and say.
Amen.
