Prayer must be persevering. “I urge you,” wrote Paul to the Christians at Rome, “to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me” (Rom 15:30). Prayer is striving. This means sticking with prayer through the ups and downs of feelings. “Do not say, ‘I cannot pray. I am not in the spirit,’” writes Forsyth. “Pray till you are in the spirit.”224 It means that prayer also tends to have cumulative effect.
