Persevering Prayer
Charles Spurgeon · Gleanings among the Sheaves
Do not give up those prayers which God's Spirit has put in your
hearts--for remember, the things you have asked for are worth waiting
for. Besides, you are a beggar when you are in prayer; therefore you
must not be a chooser as to the time when God shall hear you. If you had
right ideas of yourself, you would say, "It is a wonder that He ever
listens to me at all, so unworthy as I am. Does the Infinite indeed bow
His ear to me? May I hope He will at last listen to me? Then I may well
continue my prayers."
And recollect it is your only hope: there is no other Saviour. This or
none--Christ's blood or else eternal wrath. And to whom shall you go, if
you turn away from Him? None ever yet perished pleading for mercy;
therefore keep on.
Besides, better men than you have had to wait. Kings, and patriarchs,
and prophets have waited; therefore surely you can be content to sit in
the King's antechamber a little while. It is an honor to sit as Mordecai
did at the gate. Pray on--wait on!
"Ah!" says one, "that is just what I have been doing a long time." Yes,
yes, there are different kinds of waiting. A man says, "I have been
waiting:" but he has folded his arms and gone to sleep. You may _wait_
in that way till you are lost. The waiting I mean is "getting all things
ready"--the waiting of the poor sufferer for the physician, who cries
out in pain, "Is the doctor coming?" I will be surety for my Master when
I say that none such will be sent empty away. He will never break his
promise. _Try Him_--TRY HIM!