A simple but pointed passage concerning unanswered prayer and missed opportunities is found in James.
James 4:1-8
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
I heard someone recently refer to, "praying through." As I reflected on that old phrase (but apparently, lost phrase) I thought, "there is a big difference between, being through praying, and praying through." Sometime folks don't get what they ask for in prayer, not because the request is in conflict with the will of God, but because they get tired of asking, they get tired of spiritually fighting, the get weary in well doing, they get to the point that they just won't trust God anymore. When the ceiling is like brass and it seems that God has turned a deaf ear or impatience replaces perseverance, the seeker gives up, falls short, comes short of the grace of God and turns from the battle, giving way to the Prince of Persia. This is when the believer must hold fast, be instant in season and out of season, be faithful to the end. This is when a person needs to pray through the darkness, the opposition, the doubt. It is not an easy thing to do. It is a fight, it is warfare.
"Praying through" is "continuing instant in prayer," or "being constant in prayer," or being importune (persistent and insistent) in prayer. Praying through is breaking through the resistance, the bearers (usually a spiritual blockade) and taking hold of God (or taking hold of the horns of the altar) for the answer. It is reaching the point of faith that says, "I will not be denied."
This is not contradictory to the passage in James; it aligned with what James was saying. Praying through requires self-denial, fasting, coming apart from the routines of life, spending special time with God. We need to be prayer warriors, and prayer warriors PRAY THROUGH.
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