This Istockphoto image is entitled, “The Persistence of Light.”

September 28, 2007 Shameless Persistence Luke 11:5-11

Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 1For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

“You fathers—if your children ask[e] for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Luke 11:5-11

Persistence pleases God. He loves to see initiative. But why? Why does the Lord invite us to bother him? Because he wants to change us in the process of the asking. God wants prayer to change us as much as it changes him. The determination to ask again and again sharpens our understanding of what we are asking for and causes us to reach down inside our soul until we find the passion behind our prayer.

It isn’t the words of our prayers that move God as much as our heart does. It is better to have prayer without words than to have prayer without heart. The long process of waiting and asking causes us to dig down until we find what we really want. Then we become people toughened for road conditions who can push through the discouragements of life to find an answer.

It is also safe for us to be pushy in our prayers for on the other end is a Father who answers with what is appropriate. God’s invitation to keep pressing the red button does not mean that he is a push over. He filters our requests through wisdom and gives us what is appropriate for our need.

I am finding that with significant burdens of the heart that little prayers like pressure relief values throughout my day maneuver me toward an answer. I am finding in troubled times that it is best for me to have a prayer of faith and whenever the concern overwhelms me to find some quiet place to ask again what I’ve asked before. Some days I’ll pray five or ten times. But what I’m finding is that answers come and my peace level keeps more constant. There is wisdom to the old adage, “Turn your worries into prayer.”

Father, I am not letting go of the confidence you have given to me. Amen.

The lives of Ray and Margaret Belesky with simple, biblical truths transformed over 60 teenagers who lived in their mansion home called Bethel, as well as scores of pastors and wives, including me. They improved everyplace and everywhere they went and now are enjoying heaven. Margaret’s last words on this earth were, “How is everyone? Have you had something to eat?” She was improving lives until the end.

Scripture

What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord,
who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,
it will become a place of refreshing springs.
The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.
They will continue to grow stronger,
and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.
Psalm 84:5-7

Observation
I want to make this world a better place.
With a pathway traced
Not with footprints
But with improvements
In lives refreshed
And wilted things flourishing.

I don’t want footprints in the sand
I want to leave behind puddles in the desert
To show where God showed up
To refresh the weary.

But that will not happen with my
Gusto
Good intentions
Or get-up-and-go.

The octane of this journey is “strength” that “comes from the Lord”.
Because we can be more enthusiastic than we are empowered
And more committed than we are surrendered.

Mind you
I must have the road map not just in my mind
But in my heart.
This decision to move on toward a better place must be thought through.
This is not the Travel Channel
We’re hitting the road
And the road will hit us if we haven’t already inscribed the journey in our souls.

But the strength comes from the Lord.
That’s why Ezra started his journey to Jerusalem on empty
With hungry stomachs
Because there is fuel from the Lord
More important even than breakfast.

Application
Today I chose strength beyond myself
And may my path be like that of a river in the desert
Whose trail can be discerned
By the strip of green
Through brown and weary places.

Prayer
Father, please strengthen me for the work that is before me. Let my life be an ice chest full of Gatorade to re-hydrate the weary where the water does not flow. Amen.

Gabe with his Uncle Jon along with Daisy (thankfully Daisy is no relation!)

Scripture

I lift my eyes to you,
O God, enthroned in heaven.
We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy,
just as servants keep their eyes on their master,
as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy,
for we have had our fill of contempt.
We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the proud
and the contempt of the arrogant. Psalm 123

 Observation
This week I’ve been trying to train Zach, a very excitable Labrador puppy. Zach’s heart is in the right place but his eyes often are not. The only way to keep his focus is with a Milk Bone biscuit hidden in my hand. I see a lot of people like myself in Zach’s darting eyes. We ought to have our eyes fixed on Jesus in every moment of life, our vision flooded with the Saviour we keep before us always. But we find it very hard to concentrate.

 Some of the most difficult distractions of life are in contempt, scoffing, and arrogance. Not everyone in life wants us to make it. There are people in this world who want to step up by stepping on us. The only way they know how to pull themselves up is to put others down. The only words that console their shortcomings are the barbs they throw at others. In fact most of the arrows they fling at the innocent are those the Holy Spirit has driven into their own disobedience. They just pull them out and use them against us.

I was shopping last week when on the busy pedestrian sidewalk I saw a German Shepherd sitting alert on its own. Whisking past the dog were dozens of shoppers. But the dog was oblivious. Instead his eyes were fixed in the distance. I followed his sight trail and saw some distance away his owner. She had trained the dog with hand signals. Between each command she would place both hands behind her back. Then with a certain flick of her hand the dog would eagerly sit, stand, lay down and come. It was a beautiful relationship to behold.

Application
That sense of focus must become ours in our relationship with the Lord. The greatest test our focus will ever endure come with jaunts and taunts from those who have their own issues with the Lord that they have never addressed. But the greatest lesson in injustice is to learn to worship with the discord descant of criticism around us. Our eyes must be focused on the Lord for one reason. God is full of mercy. He has better plans for us than our critics can imagine. It is our focus on the hope of God’s future plans for us, no matter our fumblings, that keeps us alert when permission comes from him to move into better things.

 If a dog can learn to wait and watch that closely then surely we can as well. That obedience lesson awaits you today in Psalm 123. When our focus is not on where we can best land the next punch, but instead on the gestures of God then we know we have begun to truly worship.

Prayer
Jesus keep my eyes on you today. Â

From 2002-2006 I worked to plant a new church called New Hope Brisbane in Australia. God prepared a young man in our church to succeed me, Matt Prater. It was daunting for him, but Matt did not linger in inadequacy, but took the steps of humility to serve and God has blessed him and the church for it.

Scripture
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her. Luke 1:38

Observation
Mary, the teenage bride, was asked to do a very great thing for an adolescent. On one hand she was to bear the favor of God in becoming the mother of the Messiah, while on the other hand she would cop the shame from those who would not understand.

Mary could have stuck with her first comeback and opted out of the whole thing. Passing the call to bear the Son of God would have looked to the world like humility. But true humility was found by letting God do something in her greater than herself.

Inadequacy can parade like humility but it is only a mask for insecurity. Avoiding God’s call to responsibility is really another form of rebellion. When I chose to hide behind inadequacy I am looking for a face saving way to skip out on demands that would require me to step out of myself and into God’s power.

One expression of humility is to allow God to do through us things beyond our capacity. Mary found that. In bearing the Son of God there was nothing she could do to take credit. She could only open herself. And when we let God work through us our inadequacy is what demonstrates his glory.

Application

Here’s a quote from the OMF website that demonstrates the point:

Missiologists and historians refer to [Hudson] Taylor as ‘one of the profoundest Christian thinkers of all time’, ‘a visionary pioneer’ and ‘one of the four or five most influential foreigners in 19th century China’. Taylor’s own assessment was somewhat different: ‘I often think that God must have been looking for someone small enough and weak enough for Him to use, and that He found me.’

Why would the omnipotent God ask permission from puny people to do extraordinary things through them? Because God wants us to be involved in the process so that he may work through us. Prayer should not be a frantic waving to get God’s attention so that we can do things for the Lord. Instead, prayer is a passive openness that sets problems in his presence to see how he will work through us to do greater things than we could do.

Prayer
And so Father today I lay my life before you. Do you work through me and let us work in that together. Amen.