Prayer Journal Revisited: Persevering in prayer

Here's another of my older posts concerning prayer. Perhaps this might be an encouragement to someone else today!

Persevering in prayer

Recently I’ve been working on preparing a “make-your-own-prayer-journal kit” for a going-away gift for a dear friend. She’s a relatively new believer and has peeked into my prayer journal a few times. She would love to have her own journal, so I thought such a kit might be a good idea as a gift. I’m including a decorated binder, card stock and paper cut to size, stickers, a hole punch, index tabs, a marker, a glue stick, etc., plus detailed instructions. I added a few of the verses and quotes I have on the covers of my own prayer journal to the cover of hers.

One of these is a verse of a poem... the last verse, as it turns out. The other day in preparing for my Sunday School lesson, I came across the entire poem (I think, anyway). I had jotted it down on a blank page in BECOMING A WOMAN OF PRAYER, by Cynthia Heald, when I did that study. The poem was such a good reminder to me of the importance of persevering in prayer. Here it is:


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For years I’ve prayed, and yet I see no change.
The mountain stands exactly where it stood;
The shadows that it casts are just as deep;
The pathway to the summit e’en more steep.
Shall I pray on?

Shall I pray on with ne’er a hopeful sign?
Not only does the mountain still remain,
But, while I watch to see it disappear,
Becomes the more appalling year by year.
Shall I pray on?

I shall pray on. Though distant as it seems,
The answer may be almost at my door,
Or just around the corner on its way,
But whether near or far, yes, I shall pray --
I shall pray on.

-- Edith Mapes
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Perhaps this poem and these few thoughts will be a blessing to someone else today!