Fervent, Persistent, Patient

First, fervent.

“…the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” James 5:16b

According to Webster’s dictionary the meaning of “fervent” is: exhibiting or marked by great intensity of feeling.

If we were to amplify this scripture using what we know about the remaining words in it, we would end up with this paraphrase:

When fervor (intensity of feeling) is added to the effectual (able to produce the desired effect) prayer of a righteous man (having clean hands and a pure heart) then much is availed (the desired results occur!)

Very often throughout the Bible, we see the words “cry” or “cry out” used . For me, these words express “fervor”. Fervor is what motivates desperate people to “cry out” to God for help. There is great intensity of feeling behind a “crying out”, is there not?

My own experience is that at extremely critical moments in life, where I have “cried out” to God (usually from a position of face-down on the floor, prostrate with desperation, confusion, or grief) He has heard me and the resulting answers to prayer have been practically immediate. I don’t know if the answer came quickly because of my fervency, or just because it was God’s timing, but I suspect a little of both.

So, knowing the scripture verse above that says fervency along with the other ingredients equal answered prayer, knowing that God hears us when we “cry out”, why do we (why do I) not pray that way always? The answer: I don’t know!

Perhaps it is because we are praying out of obligation to duty, rather than from intensity of feeling. If that is the case, does God hear that prayer? I think He does. But, perhaps, His intensity of answering matches our intensity of asking. Let’s face it, many times we have not because we ask not, meaning we don’t even take the time to communicate with God about anything. How greatly improved over that attitude is the one that prays out of some sense of obligation? Not much, I would think.

Perhaps God is waiting on us to get serious with our prayers, before He gets serious with the answers.

Scripture does tell us that He hears our cries (indicating some intensity of feeling):

Job 34:28 “So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the afflicted.”

Psalm 9:12b “…He forgetteth not the cry of the humble.”

Psalm 34:15 “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.”

David was known as a man after God’s own heart, most likely because of his passion (fervor) for God, as well as his willingness to humble himself in repentance to God. But the anti-thesis of fervor or intense feelings are actually warned about very specifically in the book of Revelation:

Rev. 3:14-19 “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowedst not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakendness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent.”

God not only prefers but demands intensity of feeling towards Him; whether they are intensely hot or intensely cold, they are better than lukewarm, better than obligatory. I don’t think God wants us to be cold towards Him at all, but the example here is of how greatly He hates mediocrity in anything pertaining to Him. Fence-straddlers, even in prayer, will not avail much. Zealous, by the way, is another synonym of fervor.

Now let’s look at persistence:

The definition of the verb persist is: to take a stand or stand firm. Remember James 1:6-7?

“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”

Persistence does not let anything change its focus or course, no matter how intimidating (as the Lord appeared to be to the Canaanite woman of Matthew 15 that we will discuss further into this blog); no matter how against us circumstances appear to be, as seemed to be the case for the woman in the following parable:

Luke 18:1-8 “And He [Jesus] spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, 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.”

Most of us know this parable well, but do we apply the lesson learned from it? The lesson, in Jesus’ words, is:

Luke 18:6-8 “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?”

His elect “cry day and night”….that’s a lot of fervent prayer! Unfortunately, the last verse of that scripture is sadly prophetic, in this day and age. Something we are to guard against.

And, as an anonymous reader of this blog [known only as GW] pointed out just this morning [see her comment under the posting “The Heart”] there is the parable of this woman that teaches us quite a bit about persistence (and fervor):

Matthew 15:22-28 “And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, 'Send her away for she crieth after us'. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. 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.”

Such tenacity! And Jesus called this tenacity “great faith”! And her prayer was answered immediately, “from that very hour”. [But there is so much more to learn from her example that will take up an entire posting…..to be explored tomorrow. Thank you, GW, for adding so much to this study!]

Finally, we arrive at patience:

We have seen from scripture that God hears us (the answer is not always immediate. Many times, even though there is much fervency in prayer, it is not God’s timing to answer it yet; nevertheless, when the time is right, the prayer will be answered, as seen in this example from the book of Revelation:

Revelation 6:9-11 “And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little while until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled.”

These cries are the same prayers that are mentioned in Revelation 8 which, mixed with incense by one of the seven angels, are said to ascend up to God. These prayers bring about the seven trumpet judgments. How patient are these that prayed, and how awesome in fearsome power is God’s response to them and on their behalf?

So, let our prayers be done out of great intensity of feeling, let us stand firm in our resolve to see them answered, and let us wait patiently for God's timing knowing that in time He WILL answer!