Do not give up on your Father
John Bunyan, How to Pray in the Spirit
John Bunyan said persevering in prayer is hard.
Andrew Murray on Luke 18:1-8
"Of all the mysteries of the prayer world the need of persevering prayer
is one of the greatest. When, after persevering pleading, our prayer remains
unanswered, it is often easiest for our lazy flesh, and it has all the appearance
of pious submission, to think that we must now cease praying, because God
may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request. To enable
us, when the answer to our prayer does not come at once, to combine quiet
patience and joyful confidence in our persevering prayer, we must especially
try to understand the words in which our Lord sets forth the character and
conduct, not of the unjust judge, but of our God and Father, toward those
whom He allows to cry day and night to Him. Our great danger, in this school
of the answer delayed, is the temptation to think that, after all, it may
not be God's will to give us what we ask. If our prayer be according to God's
word, and under the leading of the Spirit, let us not give way to these fears.
And let us especially learn the lesson as we pray for the Christ's Church.
She is, indeed, like the poor widow, in the absence of her Lord, apparently
at the mercy of her adversary, helpless to obtain restitution. Let us, when
we pray for His Church or any portion of it, under the power of the world,
asking Him to visit her with the mighty workings of His Spirit and to prepare
her for His coming - let us pray in the assured faith: prayer does help, praying
always and not stopping will bring the answer. Only give God time. And then
keep crying out day and night."
Full essay
Gloria Patri
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
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Dawning Realm proclaims the good news of the kingdom as confessed at Caesarea Philippi, Nicaea, and Augsburg.
† This cross symbol, when appearing to the left of a topic, designates a category in Theology of the Cross, a directory of Lutheran articles.
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June 21, 2008 4:00 PM
Author information. David Bickel confesses the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, the Augsburg Confession, and the other documents of the Book of Concord because they faithfully summarize the sacred writings of the prophets and apostles. As a layman, he lacks the call needed to publicly teach in the church. | personal web page
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Scripture translations. Copyright information
The unjust judge
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and
not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither
feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept
coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while
he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor
respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice,
so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" And the
Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give
justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over
them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when
the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
Luke 18:1-8 (ESV)
