Persistence

There are a lot of scriptures that speak about persistence and link that to faith. The idea of pressing on in faith until you see the answer.

1. What we must not imagine is the twisting of God's arm until He cries "uncle" and gives us what we are crying for. Don't misunderstand the parable for instance of the unjust judge. Jesus admonishes us: Luke 18:6-8
Then the Lord said, “ Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

I NO LONGER believe (note the change) that my crying out to Father is changing Him in any way.

2. Persistent faith is changing me. It is focusing MY attention on Jesus the miracle worker. It is stirring something in me. So, when I keep praying and praying and praying for the same thing--I keep focusing more and more and more on Jesus. I am not changing Jesus, He is changing me. Jesus is in process of removing whatever is hindering Father's will from being made manifest in any given situation.

3. Satan is an adversary and seeks to get me focused:
a) not on Jesus, but on my situation or my need
b) IF I focus on Jesus, Satan wants me to think of beating Jesus in a wrestling match to which Jesus' eventually caves in and gives me what I want (just in passing note the wrestling match Jacob had in Genesis 32:24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. This is GOD wrestling Jacob and beating Jacob!)
c) Satan wants me to capitulate to the situation so that I begin to live in doubt. Doubt will defeat ANY measure of faith I have. Faith and doubt cannot live together--one of them will win.


The admonition of persistent faith is a call to focus on Jesus. LOOKING unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith-- or as J B Philips paraphrases this: "... let us run the race that we have to run with patience, our eyes fixed on Jesus the source and the goal of our faith..." (Heb 12:2)

Jesus, I persist in faith today--not backing you into a corner--for NO corner could ever hold you anyway--I persist today, because I must focus on YOU and YOU alone!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning to hate your sin

Image
   John 5:13-15 (NLT) 13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.   Lord give me grace, power, and effort to maintain a resilience against sin.  Sin is ALWAYS a dark path. It ALWAYS pays wages.  The wage of sin is death.  Sin will always hurt, always destroy, always wound—you, relationships, stuff, goals, etc.  It is a killer.  It is a wound-er.  It is a consumer of all that is healthy, strong, good, and perfect. Learn to hate sin. Learn to fear sin. Learn to run as fast as you can away from sin. Search deeply for hidden sin. Be disgusted with your sin.  Repent, repent, repent daily for your sin. Be afraid of your sin. Be petrified of your sin. Be worried ab...
Read more

Meditation

Image
Meditation I realize as we move on with this series that there are two things that need some clarification.  We already looked at the idea of silence and quietness—this week we will look at meditation.  Let’s begin by giving you the descriptions of the differences between these two disciplines.  Although from an outsider’s position there may be little or subtle differences, I want to help you process the vast difference between these—-and the immense benefit from both of these disciplines: Silence/ Quietness: Here the idea is shutting out your active mind —leaving lots of space for two things.  First, space to give your mind a rest, relaxing your mind.  It is a stopping of your mind from racing around solving all the problems of the world.  Second, giving space to hear from God! It is laying aside your agenda.  It is putting aside the debris, hurriedness, and hectic pace to relax in God’s presence.  Often music can help...
Read more

God is after you! And... for a different reason than you think!

Have you ever been pursued by a suitor—a lover—someone who is very interested in you? Was it pleasant to be liked?  Was it pleasant to be wanted?  Well, yeah—for sure.  Who doesn’t want to be loved? Who doesn’t want to be sought after?  Who doesn’t want to be appreciated? I do!  I am sure you do too! Did you know that is actually the message of Christmas—and the actual ‘story’ of the Bible?  It’s a story about God pursuing humanity. Too often when we think of God, or church, or the Bible—we think of behaving ourselves enough to get God’s attention.  Or, we think of trying hard to impress God—so that God would appreciate the hard work we are doing down here and give us His nod. Well, actually that is not true.  That is not the message of the Bible—nor the core message of Christmas.  It is actually the total opposite.  The core message of Christmas is not our chasing God—it is God chasing us! God is so in love with ...
Read more