Pray and Never Faint

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; LUKE 18:1

If there is one note Bounds sounded more often than any other, it is importunity: prayer that keeps asking, presses its case, and will not give up until the answer comes. He wrote two chapters on it in The Necessity of Prayer, returned to it in Purpose in Prayer under the title Pray and Never Faint, and wove it through nearly everything else. He had learned it, he believed, from Jesus Himself.

The parables of persistence

Bounds noticed that Jesus told two parables whose whole point was persistence. In one, a widow keeps coming to an unjust judge until he gives her justice simply to be rid of her. In the other, a man knocks on his friend’s door at midnight, asking for bread, and keeps knocking after he has been refused.

I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. LUKE 11:8

If these parables do not teach the need for importunity, Bounds said, they have no point at all. Jesus was not comparing God to an unjust judge or a reluctant friend. He was arguing from the lesser to the greater: if persistence can move even them, how much more will it move a loving Father? And He told the parables precisely because He knew that we grow faint-hearted and stop asking.

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. LUKE 18:7–8

Ask, seek, knock

Bounds saw a deliberate progression in Christ’s command to ask, seek and knock. Asking is putting our request into words. Seeking is the settled attitude of one who goes after what he has asked for. Knocking is the urgent, repeated effort of one who will not go away. They are, he said, ascending rounds on the ladder of prayer.

And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. LUKE 11:9

He described importunate prayer as “not an incident, but the main thing, not a performance but a passion, not a need but a necessity.” It is made up of intensity, perseverance, patience and persistence. It holds on, presses on and waits. And it is not the energy of the flesh, but a strength the Holy Spirit stirs up in us.

The Syrophenician woman

His favourite example was the Gentile mother who came to Jesus for her tormented daughter. Bounds traced every obstacle she met: Jesus seemed to ignore her, the disciples wanted her sent away, she was told she was outside His mission, and she was compared to a dog. She accepted it all and kept asking, and Jesus answered with a word of wonder.

Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. MATTHEW 15:28

To Bounds this showed that importunity is not rudeness but faith refusing to be discouraged. The woman’s persistence was clothed in humility; she did not argue that she deserved help, only that even the dogs eat the crumbs. What won the day was a faith that would not let go.

Desire and fire

Importunity, Bounds thought, springs from desire. He gave a chapter each to desire and to fervency, and they belong here. Desire is not a passing wish but a deep longing, and prayer is desire put into words. Without it, prayer is, in his phrase, a meaningless mumble.

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. PSALM 42:1

He was honest that desire is sometimes absent. When that happens, he said, we should pray anyway — and pray for the desire to pray. He had no time for the idea that we should only pray when we feel like it. Feelings follow faithfulness more often than they lead it.

And he loved the image of fire. Prayer must be fervent, he said, because the effectual prayer that avails much is the fervent prayer. He added a characteristic line: “Heaven is too busy to listen to half-hearted prayers or to respond to pop-calls.” By fire he did not mean noise. Fervency, he wrote, is intensity rather than fuss, a glow rather than a show.

Why God makes us persist

Why should a loving Father require us to keep asking? Bounds gave several answers. Persistence tests and strengthens faith. It deepens desire and makes us value the answer. It changes the one who prays, as Jacob was changed in his night of wrestling. And sometimes God is doing things we cannot see before the answer can come.

And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. GENESIS 32:26

He also warned against giving up too soon. “Too often we get faint-hearted and quit praying at the point where we ought to begin.” He quoted, with approval, an old saying about Abraham’s intercession for Sodom: that Abraham left off asking before God left off granting.

Where this must be read with care

Importunity is a precious truth, but it is easily bent.

First, it is not a way of wearing God down. The parables contrast God with the unjust judge; they do not compare Him to one. We persist not because God is reluctant but because we are, and because prayer is a relationship, not a vending machine.

Second, Bounds sometimes wrote as if persistence always gains the very thing asked. It does not. There are prayers to which God says no, and there comes a point where faithful persistence means yielding the request to Him, as Jesus did in the garden and Paul did over his thorn. Knowing when to keep knocking and when to rest is part of wisdom, and it is learned in prayer itself.

Third, a tender conscience can hear all this as an accusation: my prayers are not answered because I have not prayed hard enough. Sometimes that is true. Often it is not. The widow in the parable was weak and friendless; her case was won not by her strength but by her refusal to give up hope in a judge who would act. Our hope is in a Father far better than that judge. Keep asking — but keep asking as a child, not as a slave.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Name one prayer you have given up on. Take it up again this week and pray it daily.

2. If you lack desire to pray, tell God so honestly, and ask Him to give you the desire.

3. Read the story of the Syrophenician woman in Matthew 15:21–28 and notice every obstacle she overcame. Which of them do you face?

4. Keep a short list of long-term requests — for a person, a situation, a need — and pray through it regularly, noting any answers.

5. Ask God for wisdom to know whether a long-unanswered prayer calls for more persistence or for surrender.

A PRAYER

Father, Your Son told us that men ought always to pray and not to faint. I confess how quickly I faint, and how soon I stop knocking.

Give me the persistence of the widow and the faith of the Syrophenician mother, who would not be turned away.

Kindle in me a real desire for You and for the things You love, and where my heart is cold, warm it by Your Spirit.

And when You say no, give me grace to rest in You as Jesus did, trusting that Your will is better than my asking. Amen.