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「耶穌設一個比喻，是要人常常禱告，不可灰心。」（聖經路加福音十八章 1 節）
禱告生活中很普遍的失敗，就是缺少恆心。我們開始為某件事祈求，祈求了一日、一星期、一月，如果一無所得，我們就立刻灰心，認為無望了；於是在禱告中再不提起了。
這是頂大的錯誤，有始無終的人在無論什麼事上都是無結果的。
有了有始無終的習慣，就是有了註定失敗的命運，半途而廢的禱告也是如此。
灰心生失望，失望生不信，不信生失敗 ── 這都是禱告的致命傷。
有人問說：「我們禱告，應該到什麼時侯為止呢？難道不能把事情交在神手中而停止禱告嗎？」
只有一個答覆：禱告到你已經得著你所求的，或者到你心中已有確實的把握 ── 信神必為你成就的時候為止。
只有這二處我們可以停止我們的禱告，因為禱告不只是呼求神，也是抵擋撒但。上帝常用我們的禱告來使我們制服撒但，所以只有上帝，不是我們，能隨便停止禱告。
但願我們不敢隨意停止禱告，除非答應已經來到了，或者已經有把握了。在第一處我們可以停止禱告，因為我們看見了。 在第二處我們可以停止禱告，因為信心的眼睛也已經看見了。（The Practice of Prayer）
在禱告生活中，有了長期的經驗，我們就能認識這是上帝賜的「把握」，而知道什麽時候可以停止，什麽時候應當繼續祈求，直到獲得回應。
停留在神的應允，直到你在那裡遇見了神。──選
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"He speak a parable unto them...that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." (Luke 18:1.)
NO temptation in the life of intercession is more common than this of failure to persevere. We begin to pray for a certain thing; we put up our petitions for a day, a week, a month; and then, receiving as yet no definite answer, straightway we faint, and cease altogether from prayer concerning it.
This is a deadly fault. It is simply the snare of many beginnings with no completions. It is ruinous in all spheres of life.
The man who forms the habit of beginning without finishing has simple formed the habit of failure. The man who begins to pray about a thing and does not pray it through to a successful issue of answer has formed the same habit in prayer.
To faint is to fail; then defeat begets disheartenment, and unfaith in the reality of prayer, which is fatal to all success.
But someone says, "How long shall we pray? Do we not come to a place where we may cease from our petitions and rest the matter in God's hands?"
There is but one answer. Pray until the thing you pray for has actually been granted, or until you have the assurance in your heart that it will be.
Only at one of these two places dare we stay our importunity, for prayer is not only a calling upon God, but also a conflict with Satan. And inasmuch as God is using our intercession as a mighty factor of victory in that conflict, He alone, and not we, must decide when we dare cease from our petitioning. So we dare not stay our prayer until the answer itself has come, or until we receive the assurance that it will come.
In the first case we stop because we see. In the other, we stop because we believe, and the faith of our heart is just as sure as the sight of our eyes; for it is faith from, yes, the faith of God, within us.
More and more, as we live the prayer life, shall we come to experience and recongnize this God-given assurance, and know when to rest quietly in it, or when to continure our petitioning until we receive it. --- The Practice of Prayer.
Tarry at the promise till God meets you there. He always returns by way of His promises. --- Selected.
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