Insist and persist in prayer

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WHENEVER we find ourselves in some helpless situation due to a persistent weakness—like the weakness of the flesh—or to some challenges and trials that are increasingly getting heavier each day, or to some misfortune that we find impossible to bear, then we should just insist on praying and begging our Lord for help.

While it’s true that we should also be accepting of whatever fate would come our way, no matter how trying, we have no reason to think that we can and should stop bothering God for the relief that we need.

We should rather act like that Syrophoenician woman who displayed a persistent and humble faith while asking Christ to cast a demon out of her daughter. (cfr. Mk 7,24-30) Despite initial rebuffs based on her nationality, she won Christ’s admiration by arguing that “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” resulting in her daughter’s instant healing.

That is why it is important that we always think and act according to our faith, more than just our feelings or our own natural and human estimation of things. It is faith that gives us the global picture of things. It manages to give us the real and redemptive meaning to any situation in our life.

It is our faith that reassures us that we are never alone, that we are never left abandoned to fend for ourselves against anything that can take place in life. Like that sick man at the poolside of Bethesda, lying there for 38 years, waiting for his lucky turn, (cfr. Jn 5,1-15) we should remain hopeful that not everything is lost.

God will always intervene in our life. He is a good father to us, ever merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, quick to forgive. We might be a misbehaving child, but he always looks first at our being his child before he does something with our misdeeds.

It might be good to always relish this psalm that reassures us of the goodness of God in spite of our mistakes: “For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.” (30,5)

Our problem is that we many times choose to be guided by our own feelings and private thoughts, detached from our faith. And so, we plunge into fear and shame, sadness and depression, and we suffer unnecessarily. Rather, let’s just be insistent and persevering in our prayer.

And if God seems to ignore us, we have to realize that he is simply testing us for a number of reasons—to strengthen our faith, to purify our intentions, to grow in the other virtues, etc. But to be sure, God is never indifferent to our needs. He is always solicitous. He even knows more of our needs than we do, and makes provision for them. It’s rather us who do not notice what God is giving and doing for us most of the time.

Obviously, for our prayer to be insistent and persevering in spite of what may appear as God’s initial indifference to our requests, we need to spend some moments of special and serious conversation with him, like some period of mental prayer, meditating on God’s word, having recourse to the sacraments, etc. These are like the refueling process that helps us to continue going on with our spiritual life.

The important thing to remember is that we should never give up on our prayer. Rather, let us always sharpen our dispositions for prayer.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com