Sometimes prayer is like training for a marathon race.
We know that we will have to train hard and often if we are to win through to victory. It will take time and dedication.
Why? Shouldn't prayer be easy? Just us talking to God and him giving us what we want?
Occasionally, it is easy. But prayer is more than asking for gifts and expecting to receive them. Prayer is about us and our relationship with the Lord. It's about getting to know him and what he wants.
We can only know what he wants in a particular situation if we keep praying until we receive an answer. As we pray, God may change our thinking as well as shed light on the issues we are wrestling with.
Andrew Murray, a great South African pastor and writer in the 1800s, talks about the importance of persevering prayer in his book The Ministry of Intercession: A Plea for More Prayer.
He touches on a couple of Jesus' parables about prayer in Luke 11 and Luke 18, each talking about people pleading long and successfully with unsympathetic listeners for justice or food.
The point Jesus makes is that persistence is effective - even more effective with God because he loves us.
In both cases, Jesus is saying that prayer isn't always smooth - in fact, we must expect difficulties. Yet the parables make clear that God wants to give us good things.
"The need of urgent prayer cannot be because God must be willing or disposed to bless," writes Murray. "The need lies altogether in ourselves."
Murray adds: "The difficulty is not in God's love or power, but in ourselves and our own incapacity to receive the blessing."
He suggests that, in his love, God "dare not give us what would do us harm if we received it too soon or too easily".
Indeed, people through the ages who have prayed hard and long for something have realized that there are spiritual obstacles to overcome. As they prayed, they gradually surrendered themselves to God and his will. And God moved in their situations.
"As God prevails over us, we prevail with God," says Murray.
In fact, he says, the difficulties we face in prayer are a blessing. Anyone who faces challenges in everyday life learns that these are necessary for personal growth. The same is true in prayer.
"What is education but a daily developing and disciplining of the mind by new difficulties presented to the pupil to overcome?"
In the same way, our problems in prayer reveal to us our weakness and our need for God's strength and the Holy Spirit in our lives.
We have Jesus as our example in his wrestling in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He yielded himself entirely to the Father's will - and won the greatest victory of history on the cross.
We know that we will have to train hard and often if we are to win through to victory. It will take time and dedication.
Why? Shouldn't prayer be easy? Just us talking to God and him giving us what we want?
Occasionally, it is easy. But prayer is more than asking for gifts and expecting to receive them. Prayer is about us and our relationship with the Lord. It's about getting to know him and what he wants.
We can only know what he wants in a particular situation if we keep praying until we receive an answer. As we pray, God may change our thinking as well as shed light on the issues we are wrestling with.
Andrew Murray, a great South African pastor and writer in the 1800s, talks about the importance of persevering prayer in his book The Ministry of Intercession: A Plea for More Prayer.
He touches on a couple of Jesus' parables about prayer in Luke 11 and Luke 18, each talking about people pleading long and successfully with unsympathetic listeners for justice or food.
The point Jesus makes is that persistence is effective - even more effective with God because he loves us.
In both cases, Jesus is saying that prayer isn't always smooth - in fact, we must expect difficulties. Yet the parables make clear that God wants to give us good things.
"The need of urgent prayer cannot be because God must be willing or disposed to bless," writes Murray. "The need lies altogether in ourselves."
Murray adds: "The difficulty is not in God's love or power, but in ourselves and our own incapacity to receive the blessing."
He suggests that, in his love, God "dare not give us what would do us harm if we received it too soon or too easily".
Indeed, people through the ages who have prayed hard and long for something have realized that there are spiritual obstacles to overcome. As they prayed, they gradually surrendered themselves to God and his will. And God moved in their situations.
"As God prevails over us, we prevail with God," says Murray.
In fact, he says, the difficulties we face in prayer are a blessing. Anyone who faces challenges in everyday life learns that these are necessary for personal growth. The same is true in prayer.
"What is education but a daily developing and disciplining of the mind by new difficulties presented to the pupil to overcome?"
In the same way, our problems in prayer reveal to us our weakness and our need for God's strength and the Holy Spirit in our lives.
We have Jesus as our example in his wrestling in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He yielded himself entirely to the Father's will - and won the greatest victory of history on the cross.
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