[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0507":3},"MAY 7\r\nHe spake a parable unto them ... that men ought always to pray, and not to faint (Luke 18.1).\r\nNo temptation in the life of intercession is more common than this of failure to persevere. We begin to pray for a certain thing; we\r\nput up our petitions for a day, a week, a month; and then,\r\nreceiving as yet no definite answer, straightway we faint and cease altogether from prayer concerning it\r\nThis is a deadly fault It is simply the snare of many beginnings with no completions. It is ruinous in all spheres of life.\r\nThe man who forms the habit of beginning without finishing has\r\nsimply formed the habit of failure. The man who begins to pray\r\nabout a thing and does not pray it through to a successful issue of answer has formed the same habit in prayer.\r\nTo faint is to fail; then defeat begets disheartenment and unfaith In the reality of prayer, which is fatal to all success.\r\nBut someone says, \"How long shall we pray? Do we not come to a  place where we may cease from our petitions and rest the matter in Gods hands?\"\r\nThere is but one answer. Pray until the thing you pray for has  actually been granted, or until you have the assurance in your heart that it will be.\r\nOnly at one of these two places dare we stay out importunity, for prayer is not only a calling upon God, but also a conflict with\r\nSatan. And inasmuch as God is using our intercession as a mighty factor of victory in that conflict He alone, and not we, must\r\ndecide when we dare cease from our petitioning, So we dare not stay\r\nour prayer until the answer itself has come, or until we receive the assurance that it will come.\r\nIn the first case we stop because we see. In the other, we stop  because we believe, and the faith of our heart is just as sure as the sight of our eyes; for it is faith from, yes, the faith of God,\r\nwithin us.\r\nMore and more, as we live the prayer life, shall we come to\r\nexperience and recognize this God-given assurance, and know when to\r\nrest quietly in it or when to continue our petitioning until we receive it. --The Practice of Prayer.\r\nTarry at the promise till God meets you there. He always returns by way of His promises. --Selected.",1783499793000]