The Prayer Life [Annotated, Updated]: Persevering in Prayer

by Andrew Murray

Do you not begin to see that the sin of prayerlessness has had a more terrible effect than you at first supposed? It is because of this hurried and superficial time with God that the sense of sin is so weak and that no motives have power to help you hate and flee from sin as you should. Nothing except hidden, humble, constant fellowship with God can teach you, as a child of God, to hate sin as God wants you to hate it. Nothing but the constant nearness and unceasing power of the living Christ can make it possible for you to properly understand what sin is and to detest it. Without this deeper understanding of sin, there will be no thought of appropriating the victory that is made possible for you in Christ Jesus, and that will be worked in you by the Holy Spirit. O my God, cause me to know my sin and teach me to wait before You and to wait on You until Your Spirit causes something of Your holiness to rest upon me! O my God, cause me to know my sin, and let this drive me to listen to the promise, Whosoever abides in him does not sin [1 John 3:6], and to expect the fulfillment from You!