Perseverance in Prayer
Saturday, January 11th Readings Reflection: Saturday after Epiphany
Today’s Epistle begins with the following beautiful promise: “Beloved: We have this confidence in [H]im that if we ask anything according to [H]is will, [H]e hears us. And if we know that [H]e hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked [H]im is for ours.”
We have all experienced times when our prayers were seemingly unanswered, and we have all hopefully experienced times when our prayers were answered. In writing about the way in which God answers our prayers, St. Augustine said, “He who faithfully prays God for the necessaries of this life, is both mercifully heard, and mercifully not heard. For the physician knows better than the sick man what is good for the disease.” St. Paul himself experienced this with the sting in his flesh. He prayed that this suffering might be lifted from him, but such was not God’s Will (see 1 Cor 12:7-8).
God’s Will is for our salvation. Jesus promised that if we leave behind all things for His sake, we shall receive a hundredfold blessings in this life, with persecutions to accompany these blessings. Throughout history, many have questioned God’s existence because of the presence of evil in the world. They question how a good and loving God could permit people to suffer and die for His sake. The sufferings of those who experience white and red martyrdoms—how can these be reconciled with the infinite goodness of God? Why does God appear to not answer the prayers of even His holiest followers, such as St. Paul?
The answer to these questions is something that we cannot fully grasp this side of eternity, finding its source in God’s omnipotence and mercy. God does not directly will evil; rather, He permits it in order to bring about a greater good for His glory and our salvation. As St. Paul himself said, “[T]o them that love God, all things work together unto good” (Rom 8:28). Note that he said all things, which includes both those things that we perceive as good and those that we perceive as bad. We must pray without ceasing, and Our Lord Himself taught us to bring our petitions to God both directly and through His saints, but we must do so with charity, faith, and a humble submission to Divine Providence.
St. Basil wrote that when our prayer appears to go unanswered, “[It] is because thou hast asked amiss, either inconsistently, or lightly [that is, without the perseverance that we must have in prayer], or because thou hast asked for what was not good for thee [the good here pertains to our eternal salvation], or because thou hast ceased asking [again, lacking perseverance].” When God does not grant our prayers, it is either due to some insufficiency on our part, such as a lack of perseverance, or it is because God’s infinite wisdom knows that granting a particular intention is not beneficial for our eternal salvation. We thus must pray without ceasing, taking as our model the example of Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if [T]hou wilt,…but yet not [M]y will, but [T]hine be done” (Lk 22:42). May we always persevere in our prayer, trusting in God’s mercy and faithfulness to always grant what we ask if it be for His glory and our salvation.
