Perseverance in Prayer, 3rd May 2026

This week Pastor Mike takes a look at how we can persevere in prayer. He looks at the story of the persistent widow in Matthew 15. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

A little bit of scripture. What we're talking about, we started last week. If you were here last week, uh Pastor Joshua spoke about uh prayer, uh and I'm just gonna go look at one at one particular aspect of that uh today. Uh so I'm gonna read if you've got your Bible with you on your phone or whatever, they might put up on the screen as well, from Matthew chapter 15, verse 21 just to 28, and it's uh a story of a lady in your Bible, it might say at the top of it uh the faith of the Canaanite lady or the Canaanite woman or something like that, and this is what it says. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon, and behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon, but he did not answer her a word. That in itself would cause you to think, surely, if a lady in need comes to Jesus, the Son of God, with a problem, you would at least expect him to say something or do something about it. And yet it says there quite clearly, but he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, Send her away, for she is crying out after us. I mean, the woman has gone to Jesus to say, Listen, I've got an issue, I've got a problem here. Jesus doesn't say a word to her. So her next port of call is to the disciples. Maybe they'll get them to speak to me, or maybe vicariously they'll say something to me, or whatever it would be. But the the disciples basically go to Jesus and say, Listen, she's a right royal pain, gonna get rid of you. She's coming after us. And then Jesus says, He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So basically, what he's saying is you're not from the right place, but she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me. And he answered, It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Stop for a second. Jesus has basically called us woman a dog in their cultural language, which is horrendous. This is Jesus, the all-loving Son of God. Sometimes we read these stories and we get to the end of it and we think, hallelujah, praise the Lord, everything makes sense. But if you're that woman up until this point in time, you've come with this problem. I need my daughter healed from this demon oppression. I've come to the one that I've heard all the stories about that can do it. And basically saying, Peter, he answered and said, No, it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. She said, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. What a response, eh? What an answer to give back. And Jesus says, Listen, even though you come from a different place, even though you're you're not entitled to this, even though the disciples are saying, Listen, just get rid of her. She's not getting her answer. And she says, Yes, Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall on their master's table. Then Jesus answered her, Oh women, great is your faith, be it done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed instantly. Do you know? I think that one of the hardest parts of being a Christian, people who say I'm a Christian and never go to church, people who say I'm a Christian and treat people poorly, and people who say they're a Christian but really aren't a Christian, it doesn't matter to them. But if you are a Christian and you follow God, you follow Christ's ways, and you you pray and you know you you go through your daily bread, you you study a little bit on your on your app, the the Bible app on your phone or forever. And and you're there trying to develop that relationship with what you've got with God. You're trying to work everything out and forever. I think if that is you this morning, and it'll be most of us anyway, I'm sure, if not all of us, I think one of the hardest trials in the Christian life, in the real Christian life, one of the hardest trials or things to get your head around, it's not necessarily the trial that you're going through, the anxiety or the worry that you're going through just now. But it's when there is silence from heaven. When there's silence from heaven, that you pray for healing, but the sickness remains. And it seems as though your prayers aren't being answered. You pray for guidance, but again, there's no direction that comes into your into your life, and a week later you're you're kind of you think I'm no further forward than I was a week ago or something like that. No answer comes. We you plead for prodigal, broken relationships. That child that you know swore at you, cursed at you, told you that you're never my mother, you're never my father, not seen them for 15 years, and all you're hoping for is the fact that the phone goes, the the door knocks, and there's that prodigal child back, or a mother or a relationship, or whatever it would be, and there doesn't seem to be a uh an answer. You pray for revival, you pray for relief of pain or something, and it just seems that heaven's doors are closed to you, and your soul cries out, usually in pain, Lord, do you even hear me? God, have you have you just forgotten about me? Have I done something that I why are you silent? You know, if that's you this morning, in Psalm 13, David starts Psalm 13 by saying, How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? David that took on Goliath, David that was anointed to be king. David to God says, That's a man after my own heart. And David gets to a point in his life in Psalm 13 where he says, God, are you going to forget me forever? Habakkuk. If you've never read the book of Habakkuk, read the book of Habakkuk, because one day if you go to heaven, you'll meet him and he might ask you, Have you read my book? And if you say no, it's going to be an embarrassing day for you. Habakkuk asks, he says, Oh Lord, how long shall I cry and you will not hear me? And even Jesus on the cross says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And so this morning, as quickly as I I can, what I want to do is just talk slightly about what to do when God seems silent in your prayers. If you hear nothing that I say this morning at all, hear this and keep this in your heart. What I would like you to do is to look at the person to your left or your right or the person in front of you, the person behind you. Just look at them and do not say a word. Just look at them and do not say a word. Now, this time what I would want you to do is just look at your knees. Close your eyes and do not say a word. Open your eyes and answer me this question. While your eyes were closed, was that person still there? Absolutely. In the silence, was that person still there? Absolutely. So today's big theme, so to speak, the one thing that I want you to take away from here is quite simply this. God's silence is not his absence. God's silence does not mean that he is absent. You see, sometimes silence can feel like abandonment. Sometimes silence can feel like refusal. God said no. Sometimes silence means you think it's God's rejection. But the truth is often God is doing his deepest work in our hearts and our lives in the quietest moments of our lives. Joseph heard little, if anything, about God from God. When his brothers put him into a pit to kill him, when he was sold into slavery, he heard very little from God. When he was put into prison, he heard very little from God. And when he was accused in Potiphar's house of sexual abuse of Potiphar's wife, he heard very little from God. But in Genesis chapter 50, at the very end, when he's reunited with his brothers, in Genesis 50, he says, you know, what you did to me, you meant to harm me. But God meant it for good. God meant it for the saving of many lives. You know, whether you're David, whether you're Joseph, spiritual giants, as we would say, or whether you just let load me, little you, God's silence does not mean that he is absent. Sometimes God seems silent because he is working beyond what we can presently see. God may seem silent in your life just now, yet he is fully present. So do not lose hope. Because the first thing that we do so often when we think God is silent is we give up. We lose hope and we give up. God may be silent yet fully present in your life, so do not lose hope. Because God's silence will often test and deepen your prayer life. We live in a day and age, everybody wants everything instant. You want instant success, instant healing, your meals, instant, instant coffee, whatever it would be, going to the gym. I mean to develop a bodybuilder's body, one trip to the gym is not going to do that for you. One day on a diet is not going to get you to where you want to be. But delayed answers from God always develops, gives you an opportunity to develop deeper faith. You see, a prayer quickly answered may bless you. But a prayer that's delayed will transform you if you allow it. And at the end of the day, I've got a choice. And I'm saying, what is my goal at the end of the day? Is it just to get a lot of little blessings from God? Or is it to be transformed? So that when the difficulties and trials of life come, I can be more than a conqueror through that. I can be, and God's word wants to transform us on that. And even if you look at Psalm 13 in your own time and do a study or anywhere, David moves from that pain. Some theologians will say there was even panic in his voice at the beginning of Psalm 13, but he moves through that pain. And as he moves through that pain, he goes to prayer. And after prayer, he then says in verse 5, because he's prayed and encouraged himself, he says, But but despite it, even although you seem absent to me, even although you seem as though you've forgotten all about me, still I'm going to trust you. Still I'm going to trust you. And then it moves to praise. And that little journey in Psalm 13, I think, is the same for all of us at times. That we can go from pain, even panic, so we can through prayer to trusting God and then to praising Him. You know, I I think to myself of Hannah in the Bible who is without a child, and she goes to God and she prays and she says, I want a child, I want a child, I want a child. Nothing happens. And there's a period of silence in her life, and then her prayer changes. And her prayer changes to say, Lord, if it's your will, then grant me my child, grant me my answer to my prayer. You see, silence pushed her beyond the polite prayer, Dear Lord Jesus, now I lay me down to sleep. I pray this my soul the Lord will keep and forever. And some prayers are not meant merely to get something from God, but to bring us closer to God. So when there's a silence there, continue to pray. In silence, keep praying. You know, the lady that we just read there in Matthew, she had so many options just to give up. I went to Jesus. I've got my audience with the Son of God, I've got my audience with the guy who's healed the lame, who's walked on water, who's who's made the blind to see. This guy has stopped a funeral procession and brought a dead man back to life. This is my chance. I'm standing in front of him, and he says nothing. We know the end of the story, but I wonder if that was me. Where I just walked away. But she goes to the disciples, she doesn't get what she wants out from the disciples. So what does she do? She goes back and she kneels before God. Kneels before Jesus, the Son of God. And even then, God says, Listen, do you really deserve it? God knows. Jesus knew the answer to that. Jesus knew exactly what he was going to do. What was he doing by those rebuttals? He was testing her faith. Why was he silent? Because he was testing her faith. The widow had every reason to stop. Justice delayed, requests unanswered, doors closed to her, and yet she persists. There's a lesson in there for all of us. That when silence is there, keep knocking the door. Keep asking, keep seeking. When the heavens seem like brass, keep praying. When tears fall, and there can be no more tears. Where words fail you. Keep asking, keep knocking, keep praying. When you have no strength left, pray. Because prayer is not only talking until God answers, prayer is clinging on sometimes by the skin of your teeth, by your fingernails, until God sustains. Sometimes your prayer sounds like, Lord help me. Do you remember the Roman soldier whose son was dying? And he comes to Jesus and he says, Jesus, if you just say the word, my son, I'll be healed. And Jesus doesn't say the word. Jesus says to the Roman soldier, Do you believe? And he gives a great answer back to Jesus. He says, I believe. Help my unbelief. How many prayers have I prayed, trusting in God, believing in God, but there was still a bit of me. And you go to God and you say, I believe. Help my unbelief, God. And the Roman soldier's man, his son is healed. What am I saying in that little bit there? Keep praying in silence, keep praying. Here's what I'm really saying. Persistent prayer is an act of faith. The Canaanite woman, her persistent going to Christ was an act of faith. That's why in a lot of Bibles it says the faith of the Canaanite woman. This little section, if I can give you advice, it's simply this. When you cannot see God's hand, trust his heart. When you cannot work out what God is doing, when it seems, when you cannot see how God is moving, it's like going to the theater. The curtain comes down, and you've got somebody in front of the curtain with a monologue. And then the curtains open and the scenery has all changed, and you're right next into the next scene to the next actor, whatever it is. When you cannot see God, what God's doing, moving the chess pieces of your life around, trust his heart, trust his character, and we'll come to that in a second or two. Because God's silence often hides a better answer. God's silence often hides a better. We assume that silence means no. Sometimes it means wait. Sometimes it means not that way, Michael. I've got a different way. And sometimes it means God saying, Michael, I've got something better for you. I've got a better way for you to live your life. Where you can feel a purpose, where you can have a strength to go through life's difficulties. The Apostle Paul he wrote two-thirds probably of the New Testament. There's a guy who's tight with God. And yet on three occasions he prays to God and he says, This thorn in my flesh, would you remove it? Now the great thing is that pastors, theologians, and professors have all tried to work out what that thorn was. And I'm delighted that Paul doesn't tell us what it is. Because we've all got a thorn in our flesh, we've all got problems in our lives. And therefore, if I always think, you know, if they said this is what it was for Paul, then I would discount it and I would just sort of say, that was all that was different for Paul. I'm different. My problem is different from his. But he prays three times that that thorn would be taken from him. And the answer to his prayer is not, okay, I'll take it from you. His answer from prayer from God is an incredible verse in the Bible which says, My grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you. Paul asked for deliverance, but God gave him strength to get through it. Sometimes we just want relief. And God says, No, no, I'm going to reform what I'm doing in your life. Paul wanted subtraction in his life. He wanted something taken away from him. And God gave him something more. God gave him addition, a grace, a sufficient grace that proved greater than relief. And it's often knowing that something better, knowing that grace that is sufficient for us, that allows us when the world is falling apart, when the ship that we sail in through this life is battered by the storms of life, when the bad medical report comes in, when a relationship goes south and a relationship breaks up or whatever it would be, that God says, Listen, my grace is sufficient for you. And when you hold on to that truth, when you hold on to the heart of God, you can stand and you can sing, It is well, it is well with my soul. Even if the storms of life roll above you, if Jordan above me shall roll, the hymn says, I can say, It is well, it is well with my soul. How often do we ask for rescue? And God is planning a refinement in our life, a transformation in our life. May I encourage you again this morning, silence may conceal a wiser answer than you ever imagined. It may conceal a better answer than you ever imagined. And often that better yes is Christlikeness in our lives. Just as I finish off this morning or this afternoon as it is now, I said just uh something simply there earlier on. When God is silent, trust his character. When God is silent, trust his heart. When the God is silent, you need to anchor down on the truths and the promises of God. You know, as Christians, we should interpret our circumstances by God's character. The world, those who have got no interest in God, they will interpret God's character by their circumstances. If I got that job, God's good. If I didn't get that job, God's a bad God. If I've got ill health, God's a bad God. But for us, it's the opposite way around. We should interpret our circumstances with God's character. What do I mean? What do we know about God? God is good all of the time. He has to be. It's part of his character. If God ceases to be good, he's no longer God. God is wise, he's all-knowing, he's omniscient. And I'm sure some of the words that we use are the names of God. God is faithful, God is loving. John 10, 28 says that when you choose God as your as your heavenly father, you choose Christ as your Savior, the rescuer of your soul, that he has you in the grip of his hand, and nothing can take you from that. So I know that no matter what anybody tries to do to me, I am safe and secure in the grip of God's hands. Let me take you back to the story of Job. In Job chapter 13, Job has lost everything. I think I spoke about it the other week there. He's only on side with you because you blessed his life. Give him a bit of hardship, and I bet you he falls like a cheapsuit. And God says, You can do whatever you like with my servant Job, but you cannot take his life. You cannot take his life, but and he loses his health, he loses his family, he loses his business, he loses everything. Even so much that his wife is saying, Listen, I've got no idea why you're still holding on to God. Curse God and die. His friends sort of say, Listen, just give up. Give up. This cannot get any worse for you. Just give up and forget all about your God and all of that sort of stuff. And in Job 13, verse 15, this is what Job says. In the middle of all of that, we know how the story ends. So it's easier for us to say, oh, Job is a great man. This is how great Job was. In the middle of all of that, being told to give up on God, this is what he says in Job 13, 15, yet he slay me, still I will trust him. I don't know if I would have the strength, I would hope I would have the strength and the trust in God to do that. That I lose my job, I lose my family, I just lose my house, I lose my livelihood, I lose my health, I lose everything. My friends are saying to me, Listen, Michael, you've wasted X number of years of your life being a Christian, you've done that, just give up. To be able to turn to them standing on the character of God, on the on the promises of God, and to be able to say, even if he takes my life, I'll still trust them. You read through that story a job. Sometimes too quickly. It was easy for Job to do it. It was not easy for Job to do it. It was as hard for Job to do it as it is for you or me. But he knew something about the heart of God. He knew something about the character of God. That Calvary settled his love forever. The fact that God loved me enough to send the most precious gift he had to pay a spiritual debt that I could never repay, ever repay. My debt to God is wiped out because Christ went to Calvary. Because they put him in a tomb and God raised him from the dead, and that changes everything. If God can deal with that issue of my life, that he sends his best, that he sends his best gift. Romans 8 says, He that spared not his own son, the logic of that faith is this that if God loved me enough to make a way for me to be right with God by not sparing his own son as a sacrifice to make me and right, me right with God and God right with me. If he gave his greatest gift, he will not fail in lesser mercies. In lesser problems that I have, he will not fail. He may not do it the way I expect it. That's what being a Christ follower is all about. We are more than conquerors. Calvary settled his love forever. Clouds may come and hide the sun, but they do not extinguish it. It does not cease to exist. Trials may obscure God's face, but they do not alter his character. That is why it is so good to be a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Because sometimes God speaks in our silence, sometimes it's trust me. Sometimes it's wait, sometimes it's rest, sometimes it's be still. Some answers don't come as words, but they come as a peace, a purpose in life, a dignity, knowing that I don't have to worry about my identity or who I am, because I know who I am in Christ. I don't have to worry about my purpose in life. All I've got to do is surrender my will to God, and God will lead and direct me. That last verse of Psalm 23, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. I explain it all the time. My understanding of that I walk through my life, so I do, and I've got two minders, goodness and mercy, God's goodness and God's mercy. And if I wander off the path a little bit, one of them's there to bump you back on. It's a different quality of life. We heard John 3.16 eloquently quoted this morning from one of the kids, for God so loved the world, it leaves nobody out. You can put your own name in there. For God so loved Michael McCurry, for God so loved the world that he gave. He gave the most precious thing he had, his one and only son, the only one who had the ability to wipe out that spiritual debt, that the spotless Lamb of God, that whoever believes in him, a thief on the cross, turns to Jesus. He says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And that moment changed his eternity forever. The rest of the piece of string that he knew because he knew because he knew because he knew. And Alistair Beck is that little wee clip, so he has when that thief gets to the gates of heaven, and they're asking him on who's why why should I let you in? And he says, the man in the middle cross invited me. If you've never accepted that invitation, trust me, this morning is the best thing that you can do. You can say, Do you know something? I don't understand it all, Michael, so I don't, but I'm willing to place my trust in the Son of God who made a way that whoever believes in him should not perish. Perish the word that is used, it's a bit of fruit that sits in your windowsill and just disintegrates. They should not perish, but have everlasting life. You can know purpose, meaning, dignity in your life, not just in this world, but in the next as well. And when you breathe your last in this world, you know, I absolutely know my passport is stamped. And you can put me in a box, you can say a lot of nice things about me, but on that day, I'll be living the best life possible. 100%. That's what it's about. About being able to stand on that truth and trust his character. I've gone on too long, so I have already this morning. The last thing I want to say is simply this Christ understands our silence. Christ on the cross says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Had God forsaken him? Not a chance. Not a chance. But in that moment, Christ took on the sins of the world. And God, being a holy God, figuratively just turns his back on that sin as Christ bears that. And for that first time, Jesus knows the relationship's different. A man who is out without sin takes sin upon him. A God who is holy shields himself from that sin. And that relationship, and it felt. And it says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I think Jesus used those words to let me know listen, there's days in your life, Michael, that you'll feel forsaken. You'll feel abandoned. You'll feel that God is silent. But he absolutely is not. Because there is a better day coming. And that Sunday morning when the ladies went to the tomb, the tomb was empty. My whole Christian faith pivots on that moment. Prove to me the resurrection is wrong, and I'll put my Bible on the bin. Prove to me the resurrection is correct, and I believe it absolutely is. And even although I don't understand it all, I know that it's true. Perhaps this morning, as I close, perhaps you stand in that place of silence today where answers seem absent. Perhaps you've never even accepted God. Listen, if you've never accepted that offer of Christ on the cross to wipe out your past, to give you a future with purpose and meaning. As a nine-year-old boy, I sat in a kitchen in a little church and I just said, God, I I admit I've messed up. As a nine-year-old, I hadn't murdered anybody or robbed any banks at that point in time, but I knew exactly what I was saying. I'd been selfish and done it my way. But God, you've made a way through Jesus Christ, dying on the cross and being raised again. But my life can be different. My life can be completely different. But I can have purpose, meaning, dignity. I've got somebody that in the days through life that I cannot walk will carry me. And I accept that free gift. As a nine-year-old prayed, something came into my heart and walk, help me walk with me. In the last 40 years of my life, from nine, last 52 years of my life, have been walking that out as best as I possibly can with God's help. If you've never done that, that thief on the cross said, Lord, remember me when you come into my kingdom. That little prayer from your heart today seals that deal in your passport is stamped. And if you pray that in a moment or two, silently in your in your head of your heart, come and see me, and I'll tell you that help you with the next stages, next step of your journey or forever. Or the person that dragged you kicking and screaming to church this morning, tell them and let them uh help you on your on your journey. But perhaps for for many of us, someone is living in unanswered prayer. You pray for a child for a healing for a revival. You prayed through the long nights, and just heaven feels quiet, heaven feels silent or whatever. And I just say to you, silence is not abandonment, delay is not denial. God may be silent, but he is not absent. If you're in that period of your life, keep praying, keep trusting, trust his goodness, trust his wisdom, trust his character, trust his heart, trust him like nothing else in your life. Keep praying, keep trusting, keep knocking, because often just beyond that long silence comes the answer. David began Psalm 13 by saying, How long, O Lord? How long are you going to forget me? And he ended by singing, I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Just in Psalm 13, David starts with lament and he ends with praise. He starts with waiting and he ends with worship. His silence, God's silence, became his song, and that can be yours too as well. May I have encouraged you, may God's word have encouraged you. If you take nothing else from me this week, this month, the rest of this year, on those days where you feel that God's silence is God's absence, please remember that one day, on the 3rd of May, that you sat in a little church with a bunch of little Christians and you closed your eyes to remind yourself that silence does not mean absence. It is just prayer. When heaven seems silent, may the God who hears every whispered prayer strengthen your faith, steady your heart, and teach you to trust Him in the quiet, until that silence gives way to song, until your waiting becomes worship. And even may your lament become praise through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.