This encouragement came in as an email to me so I just had to share it. It blessed me so much and it is sooo true! I praise God that it came as an answer to prayer! :)
Sorry It's long but I couldn't have said it any better!
And the Lord said, "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint...
There
was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And
there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me
of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said
within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this
widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she
weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall
not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though
He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.
Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the
earth?" (Luke 18:1-8)
Of all the mysteries of the prayer world the need of persevering
prayer is one of the greatest. That the Lord, who is so loving and
longing to bless, should have to be asked, time after time, sometimes
year after year, before the answer comes, we cannot easily understand.
It is also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise of
believing prayer. When, after persevering pleading, our prayer remains
unanswered, it is often easiest for our lazy flesh, and it has all the
appearance of pious submission, to think that we must now cease praying,
because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to
our request.It is by faith alone that the difficulty is overcome. When
once faith has taken its stand on God's word and the Name of Jesus, and
has yielded itself to the leading of the Spirit to seek God's will and
honor alone in its prayer, it need not be discouraged by delay. It knows
from Scripture that the power of believing prayer is simply
irresistible; real faith can never be disappointed. It knows that just
as water, to exercise the irresistible power it can have, must be
gathered up and accumulated until the stream can come down in full
force, so there must often be a heaping up of prayer until God sees that
the measure is full, when the answer comes. It knows that just as the
peasant farmer has to take his ten thousand steps to sow his tens of
thousands seeds, each one a part of the preparation for the final
harvest, so there is a need for often repeated persevering prayer, all
working out some desired blessing. It knows for certain that not a
single believing prayer can fail of its effect in heaven, but has its
influence, and is treasured up to work out an answer in due time to him
who perseveres to the end. It knows that it has to do, not with human
thoughts or possibilities, but with the word of the living God. And so,
even as Abraham through so many years "who against hope believed in hope" (Romans 4:18), and then "followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Hebrews 6:12)
To enable us, when the answer to our prayer does not come at once,
to combine quiet patience and joyful confidence in our persevering
prayer, we must especially try to understand the words in which our Lord
sets forth the character and conduct, not of the unjust judge, but of
our God and Father, toward those whom He allows to cry day and night to
Him: "I tell you that He will avenge them speedily." (Luke 18:8)
He will avenge them quickly, the Master says. The blessing is all
prepared; He is not only willing, but most anxious, to give them what
they ask; everlasting love burns with the longing desire to reveal
itself fully to its beloved and to satisfy their needs. God will not
delay one moment longer than is absolutely necessary; He will do all in
His power to expedite and rush the answer.
But why, if this is true and His power is infinite, does it often
take so long for the answer to prayer to come? And why must God's own
elect so often, in the middle of suffering and conflict, cry day and
night? He is waiting patiently while He listens to them. "Behold,
the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath
long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain." (James
5:7) The farmer does, indeed, long for his harvest, but knows that it
must have its full amount of sunshine and rain, and he has long
patience. A child so often wants to pick the half-ripe fruit; the farmer
knows how to wait until the proper time. Man, in his spiritual nature
too, is under the law of gradual growth that reigns in all created life.
It is only in the path of development that he can reach his divine
destiny. And it is the Father, in whose hand are the times and seasons,
who knows the moment when the soul or the Church is ripened to that
fullness of faith in which it can really take and keep the blessing.
Like a father who longs to have his only child home from school, and yet
waits patiently until the time of training is completed, so it is with
God and His children: He is the patient One, and answers quickly.
Our great danger, in this school of the answer delayed, is the
temptation to think that, after all, it may not be God's will to give us
what we ask. If our prayer be according to God's word, and under the
leading of the Spirit, let us not give way to these fears. Let us learn
to give God time. God needs time with us. If only we give Him time, that
is, time in the daily fellowship with Himself, for Him to exercise the
full influence of His presence on us, and time, day by day, in the
course of our being kept waiting, for faith to prove its reality and to
fill our whole being, He Himself will lead us from faith to vision; we
shall see the glory of God. Let no delay shake our faith. Of faith it
holds good: first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the
ear. Each believing prayer brings a step nearer the final victory. Each
believing prayer helps to ripen the fruit and bring us nearer to it; it
fills up the measure of prayer and faith known to God alone; it conquers
the hindrances in the unseen world; it hastens the end. Child of God,
give the Father time. He is patiently listening to you. He wants the
blessing to be rich, and full, and sure; give Him time, while you cry
day and night. Only remember the word: "I tell you that He will avenge them speedily." (Luke 18:8)
Let it be thus whether you pray for yourself or for others. All
labor, bodily or mental, needs time and effort: we must give up
ourselves up to it. Nature discovers her secrets and yields her
treasures only to diligent and thoughtful labor. However little we can
understand it, in the spiritual farming it is the same: the seed we sow
in the soil of heaven, the efforts we put forth, and the influence we
seek to exert in the world above, need our whole being: we must give
ourselves to prayer. But let us hold firm the great confidence that in
due season we will reap if we don't give up.
And let us especially learn the lesson as we pray for the Christ's
Church. She is, indeed, like the poor widow, in the absence of her Lord,
apparently at the mercy of her adversary, helpless to obtain
restitution. Let us, when we pray for His Church or any portion of it,
under the power of the world, asking Him to visit her with the mighty
workings of His Spirit and to prepare her for His coming-- let us pray
in the assured faith: prayer does help, praying always and not stopping
will bring the answer. Only give God time. And then keep crying out day
and night. "And the Lord said,
Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own
elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?"(Luke 18:6-7)
