If, as Thomas Edison tells us, genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration, then I suspect it is also true that prayer is one per cent insistence and ninety-nine per cent persistence.
Prayer is one per cent insistence, to be sure; we do, in our prayers, tell God what we need. But the secret of prayer is that prayer is ninety-nine per cent persistence. Prayer is staying by the stuff, prayer means banging on the gates of heaven until we’re heard. Prayer, especially as women pray (and of course some men as well) gains its strength because women just do not give up. They just do not let go.
Who of us has not had in his life someone, usually a woman, who just prayed and prayed and kept on praying, persistently, until the answer came through? Who of us has not been shaped, probably in ways we are not even aware of, by a mother, a grandmother, some godly woman who persisted in the presence of God on our behalf?
As a young preacher, trying to learn my craft in my home church in Louisville, I found out that most people would just come up and tell me nebulous niceties after I had attempted to warble out three points and a poem. Most people would just shake my hand, smile weakly, and say vague things like, "Well, I see you’re on your way." "Some day you’ll be all right."
But there was one person who was different. Peggy Trimble was our choir director. Peggy had a way of saying what you needed to hear in a way that you could hear it. Peggy could tell you that you did a bad job, but she was so warm about it, you wanted her to tell you again how bad it was. Peggy could tell you to go to the nether regions, but you didn’t get upset, you just said, "Well, sure, when would you like for me to go!?"
Now Peggy had had a slight case of polio as a young woman, and her left hand had almost been paralyzed. The doctors had forced her to exercise that left hand constantly, so that, as an adult, even though all traces of the paralysis were gone, she would keep that left hand flexing all the time, right in your face. She even directed our choir with that pulsating left hand. It certainly punctuated everything she said.
Now Peggy kept telling me that my sermons lacked warmth. She would say, "You have all these ideas, and you quote all these Scriptures. You recite your poems and you have it all memorized. But I don’ t feel any warmth. You’re not being human. You’re not connecting with real people. You need warmth."
Well, I didn’t know what to do with that. What does it mean to preach "warmly"? Get red in the face and yell? Reach out and touch somebody? So I kept stumbling on, wondering what it meant to preach with warmth.
One Sunday evening, however, it all came home. Something was different that night. And this time Peggy Trimble came running up, and exclaimed, "I heard it! I heard it! The warmth! It was there! I’ve been praying for it, and there it is! You’ve got it, my boy! Mmh-umh!"
Now can you imagine anybody praying for warmth in the preacher? I’ve seen you pray for warmth in the sanctuary. But who prays for warmth in the preacher, and keeps on doing it until it happens? Who indeed but a woman who understands persistence in the presence? Persistence in the presence of our God.
Last week we thought about the ways in which men bring their own special strengths to prayer. We looked at Elkanah, the father of Samuel. Today I ask you to look over the shoulder of his wife Hannah, as she persists in the presence. This is the way women pray: but men can learn it too.
I
First, notice that women (and sometimes men) persist in the presence of God, believing that God will understand even when human associates do not. Persistent prayer has in it that determination to trust God, no matter how far off the track others may want to take you.
The first time Hannah goes to the presence of God, it is just after her rival, Penninah, has taunted her because she has no children, and just after her husband, Elkanah, has fumbled all over himself trying to make her feel okay. You remember, from last week, how, poor bumbling man that he was, Elkanah had tried to make Hannah feel better by giving her more meat at the sacrifices and by blurting out, "Hey baby, look at what ya got instead of what ya don’t got"? Remember that?
Oh, I know it doesn’t say it exactly that way on your printed page, but that’s a free translation. Penninah has taunted her, Elkanah has tried to distract her. So Hannah knows that neither one of them has got a clue. Not a single solitary soul in her life understands her. Except one. The one.
And so, verse 9, "Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord." She went to the presence, believing that He is love divine, all loves excelling, and that He will understand.
"What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee, take it to the Lord in prayer: in His arms He’ll take and shield thee, thou wilt find a solace there." Persistence in the presence begins when we believe that God will understand even when human associates do not.
II
Next, notice that women (and sometimes men) persist in the presence of God, allowing the whole self, including their bitterness, to be expressed. Women, more than men, I believe, just bring all that they are to the Lord, and say it right out. We men tend to edit; we tend to give the Lord the good stuff and leave out the negatives. But women like Hannah know instinctively that our God is a big enough God to handle it all, even the complaints.
Verse 10 says Hannah was "deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly." You see, she did not do what many of us do; she did not put her thoughts and her feelings in two different compartments. She did not pray with the head only, but with the heart as well. She brought everything that she was, including her bitterness, to the Lord.
Think about the way we talk in public prayer. All of this florid, formal language, language that says all the correct things but has no warmth in it. "O thou who art from everlasting to everlasting, thou eternal light of life, we offer thee our humble oblation of praise." Oh, get real. Get real. Don’t you just wonder whether God feels like throwing up on some of the prayers He has to listen to? Where’s the feeling? Where’s the warmth? Jesus taught us that when we pray we are to say, "Our daddy ... " Intimate! Close-up! And just ask for what we need!
Now who goes to his father and says, "O Thou great ruler of our home, Thou glorious bringer home of the bacon, if it be thy gracious will, may thy unworthy servant have the car keys tonight?" No, of course not! We express our selves, our whole selves, and just ask for what we need. That’s what the Lord wants from us. Intimacy, feelings, anger if it’s there, bitterness if you have that, whatever you feel, say it. Take even that to the Lord in prayer.
Persist in the presence by allowing the whole self to be expressed.
III
Third, women (and sometimes men) persist in the presence of God, believing that God will ultimately provide exactly what they need. Persistence in the presence means that you take God at His word when He says "ask, and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened." Persistence in the presence means that we don’t give up just because we don’t get what we need right away. Women get specific and then get busy.
Hannah offered the Lord her long-term commitment, if He would make a commitment to her. "0 Lord of hosts … if you will remember me ... and will give your servant a male child, then I will set him before you … until the day of his death." Hannah was not afraid to be very specific about what she wanted; she not only wanted a child, she wanted a male child. And she asked for it without apology. She made and she expected a long-term commitment.
In the gospels, Jesus tells a parable about a widow who hounded a judge day and night until she got justice. She was persistent, she stayed with it until she got what she needed. I don’t think it was any accident that He chose a woman as His example. One of the wonderful gifts that women have is to know what they want and go for it. It is we men who have identity crises; it is we men who have mid-life flings; it is we men who quit our jobs in the middle of the day and go off to Timbuktu to find ourselves. But it is women who know what they need, work for it, pray for it, and stay there until it comes.
And therefore it is women who get the payoff in prayer, more often than not. We men want what we want when we want it, which is usually now or maybe yesterday. We are not willing just to watch and pray, waiting for God’s timing. Persistence in prayer means believing that if we stay with Him, God will ultimately provide exactly what we need.
IV
Next, fourth, I ask you to see that women (and sometimes men) persist in the presence of God, even when they know they appear to be ridiculously intense. Persistence in the presence of God means being yourself, just who you are, even though it looks crazy and may not suit everybody’s tastes.
I just dare to believe that women are better at being authentic in their prayers than men are; they really don’t care all that much about what others think of them. I’ll tell you a funny little secret: we men are more vain than women. We may not be as concerned about our physical appearance as women are, in some ways, but we sure are concerned about how we come across to others. We sure are concerned about making the right impression, projecting the right image. And so you know men and so do I who boast that they’ve never shed a tear in public, men who will battle to put up the stoic front under all circumstances. Well, may I suggest that until we persist in the presence of God as who we are, not worrying about what others may think, we will not truly pray.
Here is Hannah, according to verses 12 and following, praying with such silent intensity that the priest Eli, male, and keeper of the dignity of the tabernacle, guessed that she was drunk! But Hannah’s reply is classic! Listen to all the revealing words in it, "No, I am not drunk .. I am a woman deeply troubled, I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard [me] as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time." She’s being herself, never mind what it looks like.
Persistence in the presence means not being afraid to be ridiculously intense when we pray.
V
Next, fifth, women (and sometimes men) persist in the presence of God when, in order to be responsible, they have to be less than religious.
I think I’d better say that one again. Persistence in the presence of God may mean that we have to choose responsibility over religion. Real prayer, genuine faith, will focus on the needs of persons instead of religious ritual.
Last week we watched Hannah’s husband, Elkanah, as he trotted off every year, doing the right thing, on his way to sacrifice. Year by year, year by year, doing the right thing, ho hum. And so, after the child Samuel is born, Elkanah is about to run down to Shiloh to perform his ritual duties; but Hannah announces she isn’t going. Not going to church? Not going? Why not? If my wife ever said that to me …! Says Hannah, "I’m going to take care of the baby first."
Verse 22, "But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, ’As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him that he may appear in the presence of the Lord.’" You see, Hannah’s concern is not for religious ritual; it is to prepare her son so that one day he may appear in the presence, one day he may persist in the presence. Elkanah and a host of others like him think that faithfulness consists of being at the right place at the right time to do the right things, and I do thank God for Elkanahs. The church couldn’t operate without them.
But I thank God even more for Hannahs, Hannahs who will pray for and attend to their children, and if that means they can’t get to prayer meeting, well, that means they can’t get to prayer meeting. But it doesn’t mean they can’t pray and it doesn’t mean they do not persist in the presence.
I thank God for Hannahs, who will visit the sick and nourish the hungry and comfort the sorrowing, and if that means they won’t serve on a church committee, so be it. I would a hundred times rather have real ministry being done for real people than have all of us sitting around this building praying imaginary prayers for imaginary people!
Hannah knows that persistence in the presence of God does not always mean coming to God’s house; it means finding God on the streets, where the people are and where the needs can be met. Persistence in the presence means being responsible for others, even if that means that there is little time to be religious.
VI
And finally, I’d like you to see that women (and sometimes men) persist in the presence of God, keeping their commitments, even after the prayers of their youth have been answered. Persistence in the presence of God brings for women, and sometimes men, the blessing of a personal relationship long after their most intimate human moments are past.
Just the biological realities mean that women are widowed far more than men are, and some of them spend years and years as widows. I’ve noticed that women handle widowhood better than men do. A sizeable portion of the widowed men I’ve known look for a second wife after a little while; far fewer of the widowed women seem to want that.
Now I know that some of you suspect that men just find out they need a chief cook and bottle washer, and get married so that somebody can sow their buttons on. But I expect it’s deeper than that. We men seem not to develop as rich and as resourceful an inner life as women do, and so we get lonely much more easily. I know that if my wife is out of town for a week, I begin to resemble a caged bear before she gets home. We’re not good at being alone.
So is it possible that women who practice the presence of the Lord and persist in that presence, feel less lonely because they have an abiding life within? Here is Hannah, and the child Samuel is growing up. She is taking him to the temple to leave him there ... the very desire of her heart being given away ... here is Hannah at prayer one more time. Even after the prayers of her youth have been answered, she keeps her commitments, she nurtures her relationship with her God, and she is at peace.
She says, "I am the woman who was standing in your presence ... praying. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me the petition … Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord." The peace of the presence is on Hannah; though human ties are torn, and eyes weaken, and strength fails, persistence in the presence brings peace. Though all the prayers of youth are answered and done with, peace.
"Abide with me; fast falls the even tide; the darkness deepens, Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, 0 abide with me"
Oh, women, men; men and women, pray. Pray for warmth. And persist in the presence until your heart is strangely warmed.
