Don't Stop; Keep On Moving!

An elderly lady was once asked by a young man who had grown weary in the fight, whether he ought to give up the struggle. "I am beaten every time," he said dolefully. "I feel I must give up." "Did you ever notice," she replied, smiling into the troubled face before her, "that when the Lord told the discouraged fishermen to cast their nets again, it was right in the same old spot where they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing?"

I really feel that one of the key ingredients that should be present in the Christian life-style is persistence. If you take a look some of the ways that the word persistence is used today, you’d find that it can mean: to continue in the cause; to remain; or to endure, to name just a few examples. Yet, we are seeing too many Christians burning out on well-doing, and that are unprepared for the wear and tear of daily Christian living.

So, how can we change this? Fellow believers, we need to develop the ability to keep on going forward even in the middle of disaster. Sometimes we're strong coming out of the gate, but then we fizzle out. In the end, the battle is won by those with the persistence to continue. You can also put it this way. Almost anyone can start something; but not everyone has the faith to see it through!

Let’s start with prayer. One of the hardest places to be persistent is in the topic of prayer. Many times we give our requests to God and when we don’t get an immediate response we feel as if God is ignoring us. Understand that many of our greatest desires demand that we enter into a persistent search. Too many times we have not done this because of our impatience. We say that our prayers go unanswered. But, the truth is that we haven’t given God time to answer. We have lost our persistence in the matter of prayer.

In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus calls for persistence in prayer. He responds to persistence on the part of His children. God answers those whose requests are right, sincere, and persistent. He is willing to answer if we are faithful, and we give Him time to respond. Persistence means moving forward even when prayer seems unproductive.

Then, there’s the matter of giving up when the going gets rough. Life isn’t always easy, even for the Christian! Remember when Paul had to encourage his converts to continue in the faith? (Acts 14:22) He urged them to remain in the faith, to stick it out. For those of you who might be in despair, and to those for whom life is tough, God has the power to deliver if you are persistent! God has a message, if you’d listen. He has an answer to your problems. God is telling you, “Don’t stop; keep on moving. Be persistent!”

Finally, another way you can demonstrate persistence is by moving forward when the cause is worthwhile. Persistence is the secret behind many great achievements of life. Some people have the ability for making a great start. Others seem to have an endless reserve of ideas. They might jump into a magnificent project, but they have no persistence. They can’t see things through to the end.

You see, the incentive to start something and the persistence to see it through are two distinct things. What does this mean for the Christian? A Christian needs to learn to see things through to completion. It means that when life gets rough; when we fall; when our prayers seem unanswered; or when we seem to despair, we keep on going and we look up for God’s deliverance. Persistence is what it’s all about.

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 1:8; Galatians 6:9; Hebrews 12:1; Romans 2:7; Luke 11:8 Ephesians 6:18; 2 Corinthians 6:4; 2 Corinthians 8:7; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Colossians 4:2.

Prayer:

Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer. (Psalm 4:1)

Have a blessed day,

Britney