By Gary L. Carver
Our prayers must be persistent. Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (
Matt. 7:7). The tense of the verbs indicate that we should persevere, keep on and on asking, seeking, and knocking. Does that mean we must beg God over and over and over? I like Lloyd Ogilvie's comment here. He says that we should ask God once for something and thank Him one thousand times for answering our prayer in accordance with His will.2
In speaking about prayer, the two words Paul most often used were "always" (
Timothy 1:3) and "without interruption" or "unceasingly" (
1 Thess. 5:17-18). What does it mean to "pray without ceasing"?
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Henry Nouwen reminds us of the medieval peasant who sought such an answer. In seeking to pray without ceasing, he repeated the simple prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me," hundreds, thousands of times each day. With every step and every breath, he prayed until it became not only the prayer of his lips but the prayer of his heart!3
I think this is close to what Paul meant. To pray without ceasing is to pray constantly, being open to Him so that we literally think and live in the presence of God. Everything we are and do is surrounded by an attitude of prayer. Prayer is talking to God -- pointedly, progressively, patiently, and persistently! But prayer is also listening.
II. Prayer is Listening!
In listening to God, we assume the posture of solitude and silence! Charles Swindoll says, "That still small voice will never shout."4 How true! To hear that "still small voice" we must seek solitude and silence to listen. Jesus was not only an example of this need (
Mark 1:35), but also reminded us of this need for solitude. "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly" (
Matt. 6:6).
Assuming the posture of solitude, however, is not enough; we must also seek the position of silence -- to listen to God. Again, Ogilvie is helpful. He relates that as a young Christian, he would pray to God 90% of the time and listen only 10%. The years have brought a maturity where that is now reversed. At present, he talks 10% and 90% of the time he listens to God.5 To listen we must seek solitude and silence.
Out of this posture of solitude and silence we find the perspective of the things that matter. But how rare are solitude and silence! How hard it is to find these twin friends of the praying Christian! Ours is a wordy world. Every day and from all directions, we are bombarded by words, commands, exhortation, advertisements .... "use me, try me, buy me" .... and everything will be fine, okay, and as you always wished it could be!