Written by Pastor Mark Driskill
September 8, 2011

Read: Ephesians 1:15-16

“I do not cease…remembering you in my prayers.”
I’ve heard it argued that you should not persist in praying about a particular need or concern. It is often said that to continue praying about a thing means that you don’t believe God has heard you. Some sincere laborers in prayer feel that once you have brought something to the throne of grace you need not mention it again. They say to continue asking is only a lack of faith. Perhaps you have wondered about this as well. I know I have.

Is continuing to pray about an issue a mark of unbelief? I suppose it depends on your reason for doing so. There is a sense in which persistence in prayer can be an act of unbelief. If you continually come to God over a matter because you prayed once and aren’t sure it worked, or you think God has forgotten and you need to remind him, then perhaps you are praying out of fear and unbelief. But as we see with Paul, continuing to pray over a matter can be an act of faith.

In our passage today Paul says, “because of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,…” Paul is praying continuously for the church at Ephesus. But he is not praying out of fear and anxiety but rather out of thanksgiving and certainty. He is not running into the throne room of grace wringing his hands as if he thought God were a stingy miser with a bad memory. He does not feel the need to remind God of anything or try again to see if it works this time. Rather he comes into the divine presence full of faith and love, reminding himself, not God. He continually prays as if to say, “I know you have heard me papa, and I continue to trust in you to do this. I have not forgotten who you are and how much we all depend on you.” Paul’s persistence flowed out of faith, love and gratitude, not out of fear.

Remember the story Jesus told about the widow who never stopped pleading her case before the judge. He told this story to remind us that we must never give up in prayer. I believe that the number one reason many prayers are not answered is that we simply give up too soon. It’s not that our persistence makes God finally break down and grant our requests. Oh no. Let us not for one minute kid ourselves into such superstitious nonsense. We don’t control God by our persistence. We don’t keep praying until we get God to work. But we never give up on prayer because we are confident that our God has heard us and he is acting for our best and for his glory. We come constantly, not to remind God, but to remind ourselves where our hope lies. We’re the ones with the memory problem.

We tend to wander away from our prayer closet and try to fix things on our own, forgetting that God is in control and he alone can win the battle. So daily we come in prayer to say again to God, “My hope is in you alone.” One of the greatest lessons we can learn in the school of prayer is to never give up. Never give up. Never give up. Never give up.

Pastor Mark Driskill
Web Minister of Begotten By the Word web ministry
See our website at http://ourchurch.com/member/b/bbtw
and
www.facebook.com (to group “begotten by the word”)
Begotten By the Word is a ministry of Helping Hands Christian resources-Evangelism Outreach
www.hhcr05.org
(Feel free to copy in any way that will bring glory to God and further his kingdom.)