“Praying through is long and boring, but it is the price you pay for miracles.”- Mark Batterson
In Chapter 123 (“Long and Boring”) of The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson states that, in the Bible, few people prayed with more consistency or intensity than Daniel. Daniel had the ability to pray urgently about things that weren’t urgent- an important dimension of thinking long.
Pastor Batterson notes that when you feel like you’ve been drawing prayer circles forever and are extremely frustrated by God’s deafening silence, the solution is to stop, drop, and pray. The only viable option is to pray through.
Although we all need an occasional no-agenda day with nothing to do, Mark emphasizes that type of day won’t be one we celebrate at the end of our lives. We won’t even recall such days. We’ll remember the days when we persevered or overcame. Similarly, the ancient truths of the Bible should not be arrived at easily. Mark explains:
“What we’ll remember are the days when we had everything to do, and with God’s help, we did it. We’ll remember the things that came hard. We’ll remember the miracles on the far side of ‘long and boring.’ ”
Mark offers the encouragement that if we pray through and think long, God will give us some exciting answers, although we don’t know how or when God will answer our prayers. If we persistently pray through, a miracle is waiting on the other side.
Today’s question: What Bible verses sustain your consistency and intensity in prayer? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Scriptural prayer postures”
