TOPIC:‌“Finishing a Bridge of Prayer”

                  by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌Philippians 4:6

 

‌‌“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with

‌‌thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God”

 

‌We come now to our last in a series of three messages on the theme “Building a Bridge of Prayer.” So far in our building of the bridge we have considered the path, principle, person, prerequisites, pattern and posture in prayer. In this message I want us to finish building the bridge by looking at three additional aspects of this ministry.

 

I.

 

‌Think, first of all, of what I want to call the PERSISTENCY of prayer. The kind of praying that ought to characterize the life of every Christian is best expressed in the words of E. M. Bounds, the famous prayer warrior, who wrote: “Our praying needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage which never fails.” I completely agree!

 

‌Christ agonized in prayer and He commanded His disciples to persevere in prayer until the answer comes. Recall His words: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9). Again Christ declared: “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). Not only that, but on certain occasions Christ spent the entire night in prayer to God (Luke 6:12). On other occasions we read these words about Christ: “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35).

 

‌Not only did Christ encourage His disciples to persevere in prayer, but the Apostle Paul throughout his writings taught that we Christians must do the same. To the Ephesians Paul wrote: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18). To the Colossians Paul wrote: “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2). To the Thessalonians Paul wrote: Pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17).

 

‌It was this type of passionate, persistent and prevailing prayer that characterized the life of George Mueller. He testified that he prayed for over sixty-three years for the conversion of a friend. Surely a weak faith would have given up. But Mueller prayed from a persistent heart. He stated: “I have been praying for sixty-three years and eight months for one man's conversion. He is not converted yet, but he will be. How can it be otherwise? There is the unchanging . . .