Persistent: Keeping On

My husband and I used to run a Southern Gospel Music chat room back at the turn of the century. His user name was Mr. Persistent.

Such an apt description! Admirable ... and also annoying.

A person with persistence is admirable. They get the job done. They overcome every obstacle. They never quit until their objective is achieved.

A person with persistence is also annoying because they. Will. Not. Leave. You. Alone.

There is a story in the bible about a persistent woman. Being a widow, she had no one to help her when someone was taking advantage of her. She had no recourse but to try getting legal relief.

But she was turned down.

Still, there was nothing else to do but try again.

And again.

And yet again.

Turns out the judge overseeing her case cared for no one's opinion. It did no good to complain to authorities. Why even if she'd gotten the Post or the Times involved, it wouldn't have swayed him in the slightest.

Still, she persisted.

One day, the judge thought to himself, "I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!" Luke 18:5 NLT

Persistence won the day.

Some people think when you pray and ask God something, you should just do it once. They think only asking once demonstrates faith.

I don't know. I do admire faith that can wait and believe.

However, since God had Luke record the story of the persistent widow, I kind of think He values a person who just won't give up.

He even asks the question, "How much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?" Luke 18:8 MSG

You can read the whole story, here.

I know it's true we can ask with wrong motives; but if you're like me, if I don't get an answer to prayer, I'll stop and question if I have sin in my life or if I've asked selfishly. If I examine myself and look the situation over, and still believe desperately like the widow did, "I've no one else to help me, I've got to keep trying," then I'm going to keep asking.

After all, the writer of Hebrews tells us He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

Do you believe this?

I'm going to share one more scripture to prove my point.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Luke 11:9

The original language used here means to keep on: Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.

Sounds like persistence to me.

(Read the first 13 verses of Luke 11 which is on prayer - and persistence!)

This is post #28 of my "Walk the Walk Christian Living Series," written from the perspective of a recovering perfectionist. You can go here to see the links of each post as they go live.

Hey! Tomorrow is the last day of the series. Join me as we examine the word, "leap!"

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I'm linking this post to the communities at Recharge Wednesday and Grace&Truth