it really does. Ask any child who got their way by continuing to ask Mom and Dad. Who gave in simply to get the child off their back! Persistence pays off. But it is tiring.
This week Crossroads Church entered into an agreement with the Savannah Baptist Assembly to lease land on Honey Ridge Road in order to place a building thereby having a permanent, exclusive site for worship and ministry activities from which to flow into our community. That is very exciting and a very long time coming.
The process began almost a year ago in conversations with the assembly committee about the possibilities. It proceeded to an association vote in October and a church vote in November. The snag came in getting a formal document. The information did not get to the lawyer until late December and a first draft was sent in late January the revision was not received until late March. Honestly, I have no idea why it took that long except no one was calling asking where the document was and what was taking so long at least regularly. It seems that was the problem no one was following up. No one was persistent.
Recently our family was due a sizable refund for services not rendered in the care of my aunt who died in January. I thought by mid February we would receive a statement and refund. No, it did not come so I called. I called two weeks later as we still have received nothing and then began to call once a week just to get a progress update. The refund arrived April 2 just a few days short of 3 months. If we had failed to pay the bill I don’t think it would have been three months until a solution arrived. It took persistence on my part. I sure got tired of calling and getting the same answer and no action, almost tired enough to just give up. Have you felt that way? What about persistence when asking God? Is persistence pestering? I sure don’t want to tick Him off!
Jesus was asked by his disciples to teach them how to pray (Luke 11). It was common for communities of faith to have a signature prayer that set them apart. Some faith communities today have a creed or faith statement. Baptists do not but ours might be the Doxology. After giving them this prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer, (it is really the disciples prayer) Jesus then teaches us how we should ask our Father in heaven. He teaches with persistence, in your face. He teaches that as children we have the right, responsibility and expectation to speak to God and have God hear our prayers. Ask, seek, and knock and God will respond to your request. Now God is God and will only respond in a way that brings Him glory and us good. So, the answer may be no, wait (the ugliest four letter word in our language) or yes but there will be an answer just be persistent. That is where we get hung up.
We quit just before the breakthrough. We quit just before the go ahead arrives. We quit just before the hard part ends. I almost did with this agreement. I had just about decided it would never happen and had become frustrated that nothing was happening and then came the e-mail late one Thursday afternoon. The final revision had arrived and it was good. Jesus was on this road to Jerusalem and he let no one hinder him. On the way to the cross he continued to get up long after I would have quit. He persisted to the cross to permanently pardon me. As a follower of Jesus I must persist even when I am ready to quit.
God did not.
I will not!
Newsong has a song phrase from a few years ago, “People get ready there’s a train a coming,” That train is Easter is coming.
No comments:
Post a Comment