Background Notes:

The sermon topic of persistent prayer (Luke’s 18:1-8) provided the basis for this hymn text.  In Luke’s introduction to this scripture, he writes that this is a story of not giving up – words of assurance that were likely very much needed by 1st Century Christians living under Rome’s domination.  Drawing on the work of Barbara Brown-Taylor who differentiates between praying and wishing, the sermon noted that she wrote, “prayer can wear your heart out” but that it works because it keeps us chasing after God.  “It’s how we bother God, and it’s how God bothers us back.”  This hymn, therefore, seeks to emphasize the transformative power of prayer on our own hearts, minds, and perspectives. Cooper created something like a madrigal with this, perhaps best used by a vocal quartet due to the unconventional metric shifts.