“Dr. Moody Stuart, a great praying man of a past generation, once drew up a set of rules to guide him in his prayers. Among these rules is this one: “Pray till you pray.”
The difference between praying till you quit and praying till you pray is illustrated by the American evangelist John Wesley Lee. He often likened a season of prayer to a church service, and insisted that many of us close the meeting before the service is over.”1A. W. Tozer and W. L. Seaver, “Praying Till We Pray,” in Prayer: Communing with God in Everything–Collected Insights from A. W. Tozer (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2016).
Breaking from our prayer before we have genuinely prayed is all too common, and equally unfortunate. The first moments in prayer may be undergirded with good intentions and deep love for the Lord. This is wonderful and good, but soon both are tested as we enter the next moments of our prayer. In our next moments we are often tempted with the distractions of our day, pressing schedules, or wondering about the world around us—anything but talking with our Creator, Savior, Friend, Counselor—the Sustainer of our souls.
In those moments we must recommit ourselves, using everything at our disposal to fight this spiritual battle—ask for the Holy Spirit’s help, use your Bible, journal as you pray, walk around, fall prostrate, pray aloud, sing your prayer—whatever you must do, fight “… till you pray!”
“Pray until you pray” is a Puritan expression that means Christians should pray long enough and honestly enough, at a single session, to get past the feeling of formality, meaningless words or repetition, fantasy, bargaining and triteness that is often present in much of our praying. When we pray for a moment, or only when it is convenient, or when it is our last priority, we have not “prayed until we prayed.”2D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 36.
We must know God’s communicated will as Abraham did to pray until we plead? (pour?) out our hearts for ourselves and others (Genesis 18:16-33); wrestle as Jacob did and beg God’s blessing for what God desires for us (Gen 32:22-32); repent as Ezra did for the sin of God’s people (Ezra 9-10); confess with such brokenness as the Israelites (Nehemiah 9); stand on God’s covenant promises as we plead for mercy with fasting, sackloth and ashes (Daniel 9); read God’s Word prayerfully until we love it like the Psalmist (Psalm 119); treasure God’s purposes, pondering them in our hearts as Mary did (Luke 2:19); push through the wall of propriety until humble enough to cry, passionate enough to sing, and delighting in God enough to change! “Pray until you pray!”
At times we may not even know what to pray for as we ought, but we stay—we linger—for the Spirit to intercede for us with groaning too deep for words because He knows God’s will (Romans 8:26-35). In silence, or groaning too deep for words, we “pray until we pray.”
For what? To know Christ who has made us his own; to strain “… toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:9, 12, 14); to pray as a righteous person who, by God’s power, have great power in our prayer (James 5:16); be to “… seek first His kingdom and righteousness” knowing that everything else will be added by the One who knows just what we need (Matthew 6:33).
- Will you “pray until you’ve prayed” for your own growth in Christlikeness?
- Will you “pray until you’ve prayed” for your family?
- Will you “pray until you’ve prayed” for Oak Grove Church?
- Will you “pray until you’ve prayed” for your neighbors, those in authority, persecuted Christians around the world?
- Will you learn to “pray until you’ve prayed?”
I have known my last five minutes of prayer to be more meaningful that the first twenty. I have known my last five minutes to be more revealing than the first hour. It is then, that I have prayed until I’ve prayed!
Stick with it long enough to “pray until you pray.” Eventually, you will come to “delight in God’s presence, to rest in his love, to cherish his will.”3Carson, 36.
- 1A. W. Tozer and W. L. Seaver, “Praying Till We Pray,” in Prayer: Communing with God in Everything–Collected Insights from A. W. Tozer (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2016).
- 2D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 36.
- 3Carson, 36.
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