When I was a lad we had revival meetings-evangelistic meetings now and then that lasted until the Spirit waned. The invitations were given for persons to come pray for their salvation or whatever other needs you had. Sometimes they came for days before they “prayed through”. Praying through meant praying until the lines were cleared between you and God; and you prayed until you were sure and filled with joy.

Praying through was praying until you got what you wanted or what God wanted you to have, and were satisfied in your soul. By-passing the shame of continually going to the altar at end of the services you went and prayed sometimes with tears for certain minutes, even hours until the answer came. We could use some meetings like that in this age.

Let’s look in the scriptures at a lesson on this principle. It is a beautiful, heart melting passage. It is always beautiful to see Jesus ministering to women. The passage is Matthew 15:21-28

Matthew 15:21-28

Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. ²²And, 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. ²³But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. ²⁴But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ²⁵Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. ²⁶But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. ²⁷And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. ²⁸Then 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.

The first thing that jumps out at me is Jesus’ initial response: “He answered her not a word.” My first reaction is, “What is that?” It is so uncharacteristic of our Lord. I know he doesn’t change, so what is He doing? The question is, why did He not answer her immediately?

J. Oswald Sanders in Prayer Power Unlimited gives us the following to think about:

1. We may be asking without greatly caring about the issue. [Remember this “…when we seek Him with all our hearts…That’s for another study.]

2. We may be asking for selfish reasons, and the discipline of delay is necessary to purge us of this. Selfish motivation is self defeating in prayer. […ye ask that ye may consume it on our own desires…]

3. We may unconsciously be unwilling to pay the price involved in the answering of our prayers, and our Father desires us to face up to this fact. [If my people will humble themselves…]

4. We may be misinterpreting what God is doing in our lives in answer to our prayers.

5. It secures our humble dependence on God. (End of quote)

When some of us receive too early His blessed gifts it changes things:

• A girl stopped giving God time when God gave her a boyfriend.

• A man stopped spending time in God’s house when God gave him a business requiring much time.

• A man stopped praying much after God healed him. [Paul said, “I asked for healing but my weakness became the area for God’s strength.”]

Here are some principles that I see in the passage related to His ultimate treatment of her prayer. They suggest to me some principles for “praying through.”

1. Praying through may be motivated by a “crying need” v. 22 She “cried unto Him.”

What causes more tears than our children, at times?

Lukewarmness in prayer is like other lukewarmness – repulsive to the Lord.

2. “Praying through” sometimes means shameless persistence, ie, persistence that could not be shamed into stopping. See how she would not be embarrassed into stopping. Reminding her of who she was just moved her to an even more humble position and she appealed on that basis. “Yes, Lord but even the doggies eat of the crumbs dropped from the table meant for others.”

3. Jesus taught us to keep on asking in Luke 11.

ASK: Keep on asking – this expresses faith toward God as the source.

SEEK: Keep on desiring – this has motive power to continue to pray.

If you have discovered God’s will…how quit or give up? If your vision will not die – neither will your prayer.

KNOCK: Keep looking for a door behind which is the thing you passionately want…Get in motion toward a possible solution….

God bless this needy broken soul…she would not be denied.

Here is a word from one of the great missionaries of the 19^th century, Adoniram Judson: “God loves importunate prayer so much that he will not give us much blessing without it. And the reason He loves such prayer is that He loves us, and knows that it is a necessary preparation for our receiving the richest blessing He is waiting and longing to bestow.

“I have never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came at some time – no matter how distant a day, somehow, in some shape, probably the last I would have devised, it came.”

4. Praying through sometimes requires “great faith” that puts belief into action! This is sometimes in the absence of any evidence to support it. She rushes toward Him, even though He had refused on several levels, falls on her knees in worship and cries out “Lord, help me” and gets way down in humility…..She impresses the Lord himself….who exclaims that her faith is great “You may have exactly what your faith has asked!” Great faith may often be exhibited in great and growing humility. This crude, coarse, grasping society may be turned off by humility; our Lord turns toward us in the presence of utter humility. Humility is the recognition that all our needs can be met only in Him.

“And her daughter was made whole from that moment”

That’s praying through!