I was recently giving a series of lectures and sermons at the church where one of my seminary's graduates had been made the senior pastor. At the first teaching session, I noticed the presence of someone who seemed vaguely familiar to me, though I could not remember ever having met her. After the discussion time following the lecture, this person came and introduced herself to me. It turned out that I had known her father for many years and also one of her brothers. The father was one of the most godly, faithful people I have ever met. The brother was a cherished fellow elder in the denomination in which I served for many years. I had seen the family resemblance. This woman (now in her early sixties) told me how she had come to faith while she and the family were singing hymns around her father's deathbed - after decades of unbelief and wandering since turning away from God as a teenager. I am sure that she was a person for whom many thousands of prayers had been offered. I am also sure that praying with confidence was at times very difficult for that family and for others who loved them. Yet it is in just such situations that Jesus encourages us that we "ought always to pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1).
J Barrs
The Heart of Prayer
P&R
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