Third Armor - Perseverance
Have you ever felt a time when praying seems useless since nothing is happening? Some people even claim that it is a total waste of time because God has a pre-ordained decision for us already. This is absolutely false.
The Lord spoke of a parable about perseverance in Luke 11:5-8.
"And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him, and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything. I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence."
If a person has been ill for many years despite praying consistently, there will always come a time when discouragement is a strong option for him. If a wife, beaten black and blue by his drunkard husband for years, has been faithfully praying for his conversion for a long time to no avail, she can succumb to deep depression and withdrawal of faith and prayer life. If a pornographic addicted person prays from deliverance from his habitual sins and yet still failing at the wily ways of devil's temptation to sin, he is likely to give up his fight and repel any prodding by the Spirit to pray.
But praying consistently is more about the Giver than it is about the "gift" that we wanted. And if the "gift" ever comes, this only means it is in accordance to His will and in His appointed time where we will reap the full benefits of the gift.
According to the life-story of St. Augustine, he was, before his conversion, a lazy and dissolute young man who pursued worldly pleasure and even joined the heretical Manichaean sect. It was, by his account, only because of her mother, St. Monica's unceasing prayer life that has contributed greatly to his life's turn around. All throughout the nine years that St. Augustine preached heresies, her mother persisted in prayer and in inviting him back to the Catholic fold. Tradition has it that St. Monica prayed for him for 32 years. This is why she is now the patron saint of mothers with waywayrd children.
Imagine praying to relentlessly to God for 32 years and how St. Monica has matured and grown in her personal relationship with God through all those years of constant communication with Him. Imagine how deep is her faith in the Lord who, after seemingly ignoring her for so many years, has rewarded her persistence by making her heretic son one of the well-loved and known doctor of the Church.
So all of us must persevere in prayer as well.
Because in the end, praying is not about transforming God to what we expect of Him but more so transforming us to what God has intended us to be.
Have a prayerful Lenten season.
God bless.
