Column: G. David Henderson: The Necessity of CriticismThe power of persistence praying: Part 1

Published 1:31 am Saturday, March 3, 2012

“Man did eat angels’ food” (Psalms 78:25)

Jesus never promised praying will be easy or answered immediately. He warned that we are to never give up praying until our prayers motivate him to answer them. Such praying is called “persistent praying.”

Persistent praying can be accomplished without kneeling and closing our eyes. It can be done during all activities while we are awake. The biblical stories about persistent praying in the next few weeks’ devotionals may reveal the reason God is not answering your prayers.  

We can have sufficient faith for answered prayer, but if we give up praying prematurely because God has not answered our prayers according to our demanded timing, our faith alone will not produce answered prayer. Our quitting praying short circuits the power of faith. Persistence is faith in action. The following true biblical story is a perfect example of persistent praying that we must emulate for our prayers to be answered.

Matthew 15 records a non-Jewish mother begging Jesus nonstop (persistence praying) to heal her daughter. At first, Jesus ignored the mother as if he didn’t hear her, because he and his apostles ministered only to Jews before his resurrection. If many in our generation had been that mother, feelings would have been so hurt they would never have heard Jesus preach or heal again — and would have never received answer to their prayers!

The pitiful mother continued following Jesus and his apostles, begging him (persistence) to heal her daughter. His disciples angrily commanded Jesus, “Send her away; for she crieth after us.” Many today would have exploded with anger, telling everyone, “I will never attend that church again for treating me so rudely” — and would have never received answer to prayers.

The mother then tried reverently worshiping Jesus to soften his heart to heal her daughter — and that didn’t work for her! Jesus’ seemingly rude response was, “It is not meet” (right) “to take the children’s bread” (healing only for Jews until after his resurrection) “and cast it to dogs” (a Jewish offensive racist term for non-Jews in Jesus’ day).

The mother, not giving up (persistence) for the healing of her daughter, said, “True Lord” (I am only a dog in your Jewish eyes) “but the dogs” (non Jews) “eat the crumbs” (healing only for Jews) “which fall from the master’s table.” Jesus immediately healed her daughter because of the mother’s persistence.

The following is my non-Scriptural illustration of “never giving up praying”: When we get to heaven and ask God why he didn’t answer our prayers, he will lead us to a huge warehouse tightly filled to capacity with all answers to our prayers, but he couldn’t send them because we gave up praying for them, because he didn’t send them according to our demanded timing!

To be continued in next week’s devotional.

The Rev. G. David Henderson is the pastor of Temple of the Lord at 611 S. Green St. in Dalton. You caan reach him at angelsfood@optilink.us. His column appears on Saturday.