What does the Bible say about persistence?

Finally, in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 saints are encouraged to “Pray without ceasing.” The answer may be a long time in coming but we are not to give up. We are to continue in those exercises we have committed ourselves to. It may be that no one else but our God is aware of the burden that we carry. There is to be the washing of the face etc., so that we appear to others not to have any particularly deep concerns, and this because the issue is with the only One who can bring about a solution. Our part is to faithfully continue in prayer.

Finally, in 1 Thessalonians 5: 17 saints are encouraged to "Pray without ceasing." The answer may be a long time in coming but we are not to give up. We are to continue in those exercises we have committed ourselves to. It may be that no one else but our God is aware of the burden that we carry. There is to be the washing of the face etc., so that we appear to others not to have any particularly deep concerns, and this because the issue is with the only One who can bring about a solution. Our part is to faithfully continue in prayer.

In Romans 12: 12 we have the expression, "continuing instant in prayer." Persevering is the thought that is emphasised; not giving up till the answer comes. From the context of the verse we see that this prayerful attitude is a feature of the Christian life-style. In order to have time to pray we may need to give it priority over other things in our busy day. This takes effort, and interest and concern for others and for Christian things. This will be an opposite kind of life-style to that which marks the unbeliever. When we say we will pray for someone or something, do we? And for how long do we do so?

The Lord adds an encouragement to perseverance which at first sight looks strange enough, but which must have therefore a lesson in this strangeness. How many arguments does the devil use, and which our own hearts assent to for their plausibility, against the continuance of apparently unsuccessful petitions. Yet if there be no more than this against them we are taught here to urge them still. And striking it is that the parallel suggested between the success of importunity with man and with God is one which seems as little capable of full application, — seems as capable of having serious arguments against it, — as any that could be suggested in this line. Nay, the Lord Himself points to the difficulty, while He presses the argument as if there were none. "I say unto you, though he will not rise and give because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth." Can we apply this to God? Not the motive, surely: God does not give to get rid of the petitioner; spite of which the Lord goes on: "And I say unto you, Ask, and ye shall have; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you."

Thus the Lord shows us that we may seek continuously, seek importunately, seek, as one needy man from another; although it might be argued, You are forgetting the difference between God and man. Difference there is, indeed; but we are not to use it to check the pouring out of our full hearts to Him. Be it so that He knows all before we ask; be it that we may be tempted to say with Job, "He is of one mind, and who can turn Him?" let us not heed arguments that would shut us from all the comfort of knowing that we have for our necessity a living God that hears and answers prayer. Ask as if He would yield to mere importunity. Cling to Him as Jacob clung, and say, "I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me." Ask until you hear Him say, "As a prince hast thou power with God … , and hast prevailed."

Here, then, we have pressed upon our attention the important moral condition of perseverance. "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint." This is intimately connected with the definiteness and importunity to which we have already referred. We want a certain thing; we cannot do without it. We importunately, unitedly, believingly, and perseveringly wait on our God until He graciously send an answer, as He most assuredly will, if the moral basis and the moral conditions be duly maintained.

When the disciples said unto the Lord, "Teach us to pray," He gave them a short, simple, and direct prayer. Then He told them about one going to a friend at midnight and asking him for three loaves, and, though he was first refused, yet because of his importunity or perseverance in asking, his request was granted (Luke 11:1-10). Here again we are taught to be definite in our prayers, and urgent, and also to persevere in the same. These words of our Lord tell us of a request presented out of a positive, felt need with one thing before the mind and heart. The request was simple, direct, pointed, and continued earnestness "Friend, lend me three loaves." It was not a long, rambling, dull statement about all sorts of things with lengthy explanations as are often heard in prayer-meetings.

But these are exceptional cases, and generally speaking, the Lord would have us go on praying for a thing that is upon our hearts. He often keeps us waiting for months, and even for years, before giving an answer, in order to test the reality of our desire and to prove our faith. He would have us importunate about what we seek of Him, and thus show that we are really in earnest. This is the lesson conveyed to us in the parable of the traveller who applied to his friend for bread at midnight (Luke 11). He was heard because of his importunity. Another parable—that of the injured widow (Luke 18)—enforces the same truth, that men ought not to faint or grow weary in prayer.

It is not that God is a hard and unwilling Giver, but that importunity is a test of earnestness and faith.

The very "importunity" of the man at the unseasonable hour of midnight, was the occasion of his obtaining the loaves (Luke 11:8). One can lay down no rules in such cases. The truly exercised heart gets its own answer from God. At times we can, with simple confidence, "make known," and commit the request to God. At others the heart is conscious that it cannot but cry to God until the heart is at rest as to the petition. He will not give it till His own time, and meanwhile the soul is kept in earnest exercise; faith is tested and patience tried, and the heart watches and waits on Him. Again, such is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us; and if we know that He hears us, we know we have the petitions that we desired of Him (1 John 5:14-15). He listens to everything, and grants that which is in accordance with His will. He cannot fail in power, and we have the reply. The true heart would ask nothing contrary to His mind and will. Back

Our Lord does not forbid frequent repetition but “vain repetition.” He Himself, blessed be His name, in His agony in the garden, prayed the same thing three times over. This is sufficient to prove that there may be repetition which is very far indeed from being “vain.” An individual in the privacy of his closet, or a number of Christians in public assembly, may earnestly, fervently, perseveringly and importunately urge and re-urge a certain matter which presses heavily on the heart, without being open to the charge of “vain repetition.”

This, however, does not mean that we are not allowed to repeat certain requests in our prayers which are a real burden on our hearts. We have to make a distinction between vain repetition of constantly repeated "formulas," and the intensive fervent prayer of a believer who in his trouble constantly repeats his request. Did not the Lord Jesus Himself present the parable of the widow to His disciples, that they ought always to pray, and not to faint? He then explicitly said: "shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?" (Luke 18:1-8; Acts 12:5; Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18).