Patience and Perseverance in Prayer

Jesus' Teaching on Prayer

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."

He said to them, "When you pray, say: "'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.'"

Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'

"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

- Luke 11:1-13 (NIV)

'How long do I have to go on praying about it?' I asked my spiritual director. I was faced with a peculiarly intractable problem and there seemed no obvious way out. I had prayed about it already for quite some time and there seemed to be no change.

'You can never tell,' he replied with a gentle smile. 'Perhaps every day for a month or two. Or it might be a year or two. The timing isn't our business; that's up to God. Our task is to go on praying and trust that God will do what he will do in his own time.'

That was really frustrating advice, but it turned out to be right. It was two or three more months before anything happened, but when it did it was like a dam bursting. I have no idea why God answers on the 1000th time a prayer he seems to have ignored for the previous 999 times. One might imagine that it would work more steadily and gradually. But no: from our point of view at least, prayer is like chopping at a tree. For 99 strokes of the axe, the main trunk seems to stand firm. Then, on the 100th stroke, suddenly it keels over.

Of course, we know that the previous strokes of the axe were weakening the trunk, even though we couldn't see it. And that's what prayer is like - not that God needs 'weakening' but that, for all sorts of other reasons that we can't see, things have to take the time they have to take. And that leads us to the shape of the prayer Jesus gave his disciples. However you pray it, the Lord's Prayer starts precisely with the note that says, 'God's way and God's time is best.'

To say the Lord's Prayer demands that you pay primary attention to God himself. It is his name and his kingdom that we care about above all, not our particular problems. But, having said that, the three requests that follow - for bread, forgiveness, and safety from being tested to destruction - all place our concerns within that name and kingdom. That's the clue.

To pray the Lord's Prayer, then, requires an odd combination: complete humility and complete boldness. Once we get the first right, the second can follow cheerfully. Once God's name and kingdom are the framework of all we do and think, we are free to knock on his door as late at night as we want.

- Tom Wright, Lent for Everyone: Luke Year C