Prayer is most essential for our spiritual life. Knowing this, when the children of God pray for a particular matter for a few days and do not receive an answer to it, Satan brings weariness into their heart. So, some give room to such discouragement and give up praying for that matter. Some say, "What's the use of praying?" and yet a few others say,"Whether or not I pray, what is to happen will happen", and with such thoughts they stop praying for that matter altogether. Let us not forget that such faint-heartedness is a powerful weapon of the devil. How can we be delivered from this kind of weariness?
In the parable spoken by Jesus to indicate that we should always pray and not faint, we see the widow, who though she was not avenged immediately, troubled the judge repeatedly without fainting (Luke 18:1-7). A widow, who was earlier separated from her parents, her first support and later her husband, her second support, now has only Christ for all her support. When a person has more than one place to trust in, he is not able to hold on to one support. But as for the widow the Lord is her only trust. A widow is forsaken, reproached and grieved in spirit (Isaiah 54:4-6). A widow in such a forsaken state, considers the Lord as her only refuge, and depending on Him alone, she is able to pray without fainting. The Lord very often leads us also to the experience of a widow by allowing our dear ones to forsake us, and by causing us to get wounded at heart, and be reproached by them so that we too may pray always without fainting. St. Paul too had a continuous sorrow at heart (Romans 9 : 1,2). Therefore he did not faint in his prayer life. Again, as we read in II Kings 4, the widow's debt was cleared miraculously by the power of God. Not only was she a helpless widow, her two sons were about to be taken away as slaves as well. This made her look up to the Lord alone for help. Thus it is possible for us to always pray without fainting when we have no other source of support.
Some keep praying for the salvation of their loved ones for a short season and then get discouraged and stop praying when they are not saved. George Mueller prayed for the salvation of two of his friends for 53 long years, continuously without fainting. Then while on his deathbed, just before he could breathe his last, he heard that one of them had been saved. Soon after, the other friend was also saved. God honoured his prayer thereby proving that He is a 'prayer answering God'. Have you stopped praying for many of those people for whom you prayed earlier? Once again, if you renew praying, the promise of Jesus in Luke 18:8, "He will avenge them speedily", will be fulfilled in your life too. But it does not mean that He will answer us 'immediately' after we pray, because in the previous verse we read that He will "bear long with them." That is, on the one hand God bear long with them and on the other He answers speedily too. But when he delays, men become weary. Therefore, even if we do not get our prayers answered immediately we should wait patiently along with our Lord. Joseph showed extraordinary patience without fainting at heart, though he despaired of hope and the events of his life took place contrary to the dreams shown to him by the Lord. But how did the Lord answer this patient Joseph 'speedily'?
Joesph could not prove his innocence according to man's justice because the woman had his garment in her hand. But when the Lord decided to do him justice, just in one day within a short time, from the prison he was "speedily" elevated to the position next to Pharaoh. How marvellous! In your matter too, even if the Lord is bearing long with you, He will speedily mete out justice to you. Therefore, keep on praying without fainting, waiting for His time to send down the answer for your prayers. Be blessed.
