The Persevering Prayer
by Joy Walter
What is it like when the thing you’ve prayed for the longest is answered? I’ve been asking myself that for a few weeks now. Many times, I have rejoiced in immediately answered prayers. Other times, I have wrestled with seemingly unanswered prayers—the friend that still died, the baby that was never born, the marriage that wasn’t healed. I have wrestled with the tension in those moments between God’s goodness and His sovereignty.
But what is it like to pray for years, not knowing what His answer will be? Romans 12:12 says, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Persevering…never ceasing. Unsure of the outcome. And then there’s a suddenly. Suddenly the answer comes for which you have been praying longer than you can remember. Suddenly, He responds. And somehow, you knew He was there all along. Even on the days when it seemed like He wasn’t listening or at least wasn’t answering, He was there. He knows the beginning from the end. On those days when everything is cloudy and we don’t know up from down, He knows. He knew all along when He would provide that answer. In our years of prayer, in both our moments of persistence and our moments of doubt, He had a plan.
And Suddenly
Our family experienced a moment like this recently. This upcoming January, my mom will have had cancer for 20 years. For almost half my lifetime, she has undergone treatment and transplants and surgeries. She has put countless miles on vehicles making treks to Arkansas where she is seen by a specialist. We were told all those years ago that she would never go into full remission and would live with it for the remainder of her life. As time progressed, she watched friends die from the same cancer.
This past April, we were told that the cancer had progressed as her numbers spiked and they discovered lesions all over her body. Because of this, she started a new treatment but suffered from several side effects. In mid-summer, she visited my uncle’s church in AR where the elders there prayed over her for healing. The next day, her tests revealed a drastic drop in her numbers and the disappearance of all lesions! Her most recent testing revealed that she is now in complete remission! A miracle we were told would never happen!!
As we stand in awe of this answered prayer, I am reminded of all the ways in which we were never alone. Twenty years is a long time to ask God for something. Even still, it’s not about that thing for which we are asking but the relationship it is building. A deeper trust was built as each day was lived dependent on Him. Yes, there were times we would grow weary and moments when praying seemed pointless. I remember in those early days, leaning on the prayers of others because caretaking was so taxing, I didn’t have my own prayers. Even still, God surrounded us with the Body to love and care for us in countless ways.
As her dependence and trust in Him has grown, God has used my mom to minister to countless cancer patients. Although the road has been long, God has shone His light through her to so many who are hurting. The journey has grown us as a family. Because some of my siblings were especially young when she was diagnosed, this life is all they have known. I can look back and see His hand in so many details interwoven in my family throughout this cancer journey. God used the really hard to bring about the good in my own life from where and when I went to college to how I met my husband. Sometimes the things we would never choose for ourselves are exactly the things God has perfectly planned to make us into who we are in Him.
So, if you find yourself praying the same prayer for years on end, know that you are not alone. As a little girl, there was a picture at the end of our hallway about footprints in the sand. The story talks about two prints in the sand along the journey of life--one of the author’s and one of the Lord’s. However, there are moments when there is only one set and these were the hardest times in his life. As he asked the Lord why he was alone in those moments, the Lord responded, “I never left you. When you see one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.” Before I was old enough to have experienced the trials of life that would come my way, these truths were engrained on my soul. Years later, when the cancer diagnosis came and my mom could barely walk, I knew that we were never alone.
I remember learning that Psalm 37:4 isn’t about getting that thing that you want, that answer to prayer. Rather, it is about getting the Lord Himself. “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” As we delight in Him, He becomes the desire of our heart. As we seek Him and as we come to Him with our requests and needs, He gives us a peace that surpasses understanding (Phil 4:7). So, whether His answer is an immediate yes or no, or a wait and see, keep coming to Him in prayer. As you do, He will give you Himself, the best answer of all.