Post by Betty on May 8, 2005 6:43:45 GMT -5
Title: Beginning Without Finishing
"He spoke a parable unto them…that men ought
always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1).
No temptation in the life of intercession is more
common than this of failure to persevere. We
begin to pray for a certain thing; we put up our
petitions for a day, a week, a month; and then,
receiving as yet no definite answer, straightway
we faint, and cease altogether from prayer
concerning it.
This is a deadly fault. It is simply the snare of
many beginnings with no completions. It is
ruinous in all spheres of life.
The man who forms the habit of beginning without
finishing has simply formed the habit of failure.
The man who begins to pray about a thing and does
not pray it through to a successful issue of
answer has formed the same habit in prayer.
To faint is to fail; then defeat begets
disheartenment, and unfaith in the reality of
prayer, which is fatal to all success.
But someone says, "How long shall we pray? Do we
not come to a place where we may cease from our
petitions and rest the matter in God's hands?"
There is but one answer. Pray until the thing you
pray for has actually been granted, or until you
have the assurance in your heart that it will be.
Only at one of these two places dare we stay our
importunity, for prayer is not only a calling
upon God, but also a conflict with Satan. And
inasmuch as God is using our intercession as a
mighty factor of victory in that conflict, He
alone, and not we, must decide when we dare cease
from our petitioning. So we dare not stay our
prayer until the answer itself has come, or until
we receive the assurance that it will come.
In the first case we stop because we see. In the
other, we stop because we believe, and the faith
of our heart is just as sure as the sight of our
eyes; for it is faith from, yes, the faith of
God, within us.
More and more, as we live the prayer life, shall
we come to experience and recognize this
God-given assurance, and know when to rest
quietly in it, or when to continue our
petitioning until we receive it. --The Practice
of Prayer
Tarry at the promise till God meets you there. He
always returns by way of His promises.
--Selected
Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
"He spoke a parable unto them…that men ought
always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1).
No temptation in the life of intercession is more
common than this of failure to persevere. We
begin to pray for a certain thing; we put up our
petitions for a day, a week, a month; and then,
receiving as yet no definite answer, straightway
we faint, and cease altogether from prayer
concerning it.
This is a deadly fault. It is simply the snare of
many beginnings with no completions. It is
ruinous in all spheres of life.
The man who forms the habit of beginning without
finishing has simply formed the habit of failure.
The man who begins to pray about a thing and does
not pray it through to a successful issue of
answer has formed the same habit in prayer.
To faint is to fail; then defeat begets
disheartenment, and unfaith in the reality of
prayer, which is fatal to all success.
But someone says, "How long shall we pray? Do we
not come to a place where we may cease from our
petitions and rest the matter in God's hands?"
There is but one answer. Pray until the thing you
pray for has actually been granted, or until you
have the assurance in your heart that it will be.
Only at one of these two places dare we stay our
importunity, for prayer is not only a calling
upon God, but also a conflict with Satan. And
inasmuch as God is using our intercession as a
mighty factor of victory in that conflict, He
alone, and not we, must decide when we dare cease
from our petitioning. So we dare not stay our
prayer until the answer itself has come, or until
we receive the assurance that it will come.
In the first case we stop because we see. In the
other, we stop because we believe, and the faith
of our heart is just as sure as the sight of our
eyes; for it is faith from, yes, the faith of
God, within us.
More and more, as we live the prayer life, shall
we come to experience and recognize this
God-given assurance, and know when to rest
quietly in it, or when to continue our
petitioning until we receive it. --The Practice
of Prayer
Tarry at the promise till God meets you there. He
always returns by way of His promises.
--Selected
Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
