Here,
is a great secret of failure. Concerning
this the Scriptures are plain enough.
It
may be difficult to satisfy all minds why
one needs to keep asking, or ask long – but the fact is it is so. Jesus
lacked no desire of faith, but He prayed for hours at a time, and for one
thing; and again all night.
And
He teaches importunity. “And shall not
God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long
with them?” In the explanation of the
prayer He gives His people to offer, he urges the necessity of importunity –
“because of his importunity he will
rise and give him as many as he needeth.”
Where
prayer involves but two wills it
should be a simple thing. The two wills
are God’s and one’s own. If God has
promised a matter, one should be able to apprehend and get it with comparative
ease. If God wills it and the suppliant
will it, then the way to the end should be relatively short.
Take for
instance the question of salvation – the salvation of pardon, or of
purity. This is the will of God. Over this there should be no struggle and no
waiting or postponement. It requires no importunity. There may be all this, but it is not necessary.
God is ready as well as willing and His
time is now. All waiting, or struggle, or even persistency
are due to some failure on the human side to come to terms. God’s face is toward the repentant sinner, to
pardon, or toward the trusting believer to purify, and no delay at all is required or even, on God’s part, allowed – now
is the accepted time.
Take farther the
matter of special grace, or divine leading, or the supply of wisdom, or a
hundred other demands that are with us so often and so needful. When God has so plainly indicated His will in
these particular matters, the getting them should be simple because no wills
are involved outside these I am mentioning.
--Rev. Charles Fowler, 1912
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