Since a teenager I have been convinced of the power of prayer.  However, there are visions for which one can labor in prayer for months, yes even for years with seemingly little supernatural response.   Through Gateway House of Prayer my ministry facilitates 24/7 prayer as over one-hundred volunteers intercede in prayer and worship.   We have seen God move supernaturally and answer 1000’s of prayers, but we also wait with expectation for things which we seek, but do not yet see.    The scriptures instruct us to not grow weary in well doing, for we will reap a harvest in due time, however perseverance is not easy work.  Hope can fade. Faith can come and go like the fog of a early morning.

Andrew Murray, in his book “The Ministry of Intercession” shifts the paradigm about persevering prayer from ‘getting an answer’ to ‘laying hold of grace’.  I realized as I reflected on his words that often my weariness or frustration in persevering is centered on me.  I seek fulfillment from God providing an answer to my prayer.  Andrew challenges me surrender my own will, to seek my fulfillment in Christ and in doing so receive grace and life.

What is education but a daily developing and disciplining of the mind by new difficulties presented to the pupil to overcome? The moment a lesson has become easy, the pupil is moved on to one that is higher and more difficult. With the race and the individual, it is in the meeting and the mastering of difficulties that our highest attainments are found. It is even so in our intercourse with God. Just imagine what the result would be if the child of God had only to kneel down and ask, and get, and go away. What unspeakable loss to the spiritual life would ensue.

 It is in the difficulty and delay that calls for persevering prayer, that the true blessing and blessedness of the heavenly life will be found. We there learn how little we delight in fellowship with God, and how little we have of living faith in Him. We discover how earthly and unspiritual our heart still is, how little we have of God’s Holy Spirit. We there are brought to know our own weakness and unworthiness, and to yield to God’s Spirit to pray in us, to take our place in Christ Jesus, and abide in Him as our only plea with the Father. There our own will and strength and goodness are crucified. There we rise in Christ to newness of life, with our whole will dependent on God and set upon His glory. Do let us begin to praise God for the need and the difficulty of importunate prayer, as one of His choicest means of grace.

Murray, Andrew (2012-05-12). The Ministry of Intercession A Plea for More Prayer (Kindle Locations 558-569).  Kindle Edition.