Men Ought Always to Pray

Solomon, universally agreed to be a very wise man, made this simple observation, “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small” (Proverbs 24:10).  The strength he speaks of is an inner strength, a strength that both motivates and sustains even in the midst of great difficulty.  Adversity conversely has a way of fueling uncertainty, marginalizing the value of our efforts, and ultimately quenching the flame of hope.  When we succumb, we give up.

Let’s move a 1,000 years from Solomon’s days to the earthly ministry of Christ.  He taught his disciples, “men ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).  Christ, too, understood the dissipation of strength through adversity.  But he would teach us that prayer is the antidote for discouragement, dismay, and defeat. Prayer brings our appeal before the heavenly Father who is eager to hear the prayers of his children.  While there may be a delay in his answer or an answer not conforming to our expectation, we understand it is because of his goodness operating in harmony with his infinite wisdom. God always does what is best for his children and what is best always accrues to his glory and our good.

David understood well this truth.  He declared, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.  Wait on the LORD:  be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart:  wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalm 27:13-14).  Where there is God, there is hope.  It was this hope in an all powerful and loving God that sustained him. More importantly, it was a hope in his God, his heavenly Father, a hope forged by relationship.  The strength that adversity would seek to snuff out was renewed by the supply of a personal God who cared infinitely for his soul.

This was not the only time the adversities of life plagued David.  Much like ourselves, he found himself moving as it were from one difficulty to the next.  Life is made up of such hardships and God’s children are not exempt from experiencing them.  But he consoled himself with this exhortation, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?  And why art thou disquieted within me?  Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (Psalm 43:5).  He found that his God’s goodness could not be exhausted and so shall we.

Paul testified to the believers in Rome of the unwavering and limitless care of the heavenly Father for his own children, i.e. those who have come to know him by faith in Christ.  “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32).  Dear child of God, we must never doubt the intentions of our Father.  He ever invites you as David learned and would teach us so, to wait on the LORD and he shall strengthen your heart.  The God who works “all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11) is too good to be unkind and too wise to make a mistake.  Hope in God.  Pray and you will not faint.