All in Persistence
Do those around you understand your faith? Has Jesus called you to believe in Him, but your family thought that you were not thinking straight? Sometimes our faith is challenged most by those who are closest to us, but don’t feel alone in this... it happened to Jesus as well when he first began performing miracles, and drawing crowds.
Is your faith consistent and always looking out at the sun from the mountaintop, or do you go up the mountain only to slide back down a ways and then begin the climb again? Do you find that you can’t hold onto the joy of those amazing days of faith, and find yourself slipping back towards your old sinful self? Well, maintaining our faith requires us to be more than a pine branch in a fire that pops and cracks as it burns bright for a moment... then dies quickly down.
Are you bold enough to ask God for those things you need? Do you dare to mention the trivial items that you are lacking? So often we hold back things in prayer because we feel that the timing is inopportune, or that we think we know the mind of God, and that He will not want to deal with something so minor, or something that we can do for ourselves. Is this you? Well friends, don’t presume to know the mind of God, and listen to his Word as we are told to ask boldly, and faithfully in the name of Jesus, and for whatever we need.
Have you given up on certain desires because you prayed for them once, twice, three times, and they were not given to you? Have you resolved yourself to the fact that God just doesn’t want you to have this thing, or that He just doesn’t hear you? Well, if you are praying rightly in the will of God and not asking Him to go against His character and Word, then neither of these assumptions are correct. Persistent prayer leads us into the very crux of faith.
What is the state of your faith today? Is it strong, well trained, and ready to run the race; or does it become winded, and lose stamina during the long marathon of life? Do you tell yourself that your faith is able to withstand anything, but lose hope at the least of life’s difficulties? If you find your faithfulness lacking, let’s talk about selecting a coach, and placing ourselves in spiritual training.
Where do you go for help? Do you go there for your own needs, or for those of another? And, are you persistent in your pleading for assistance? These three questions determine who we perceive as having strength, whether we are in need or empathetic, and how great our love or desire is that has brought us there. Have you ever applied these three simple little questions to your prayers, and if so, what did they reveal to you, about Jesus, and your faith?