Perseverance and Persistence

“And it came to pass that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, when ye pray say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not: the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 

I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:1-13) (Also read Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2:6-19) Yeshua, in this Scripture above we read from Luke, speaks of persistence, but also about perseverance. Yeshua’s words about perseverance and persistence can aptly be applied to every area of our lives. He gives three eternal principles that we need to keep in mind:

I.) Persistence in asking. We won’t receive if we don’t ask. “Ask and it will be given you.” Yeshua admonishes us to persevere and be persistent in our prayer life. To make His point, Yeshua uses the example of one who goes to his neighbour late at night asking for bread to set before guests who have arrived and are in need of something to eat. To fully understand this parable, we have to be somewhat familiar with ancient Oriental customs. Hospitality to travellers was of the utmost importance. For the host not to be hospitable and set before his or her guests what they needed was a great breach of accepted standards, something that would cause extreme embarrassment on the part of the host. So we can see why the host would be so persistent in begging his neighbour for bread at midnight. What Yeshua is really talking about is perseverance and persistence in prayer with the conviction that
YAHVEH is good and wants to give good things to the children of the earth. We “need to pray always and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). But the asking and receiving principle applies to other areas of our lives as well. In a certain church that was getting ready to go into a building program, a half dozen families wrote letters to friends and family members telling them about the upcoming building program and asking them to consider giving a gift toward the project. Almost immediately the church received several thousand dollars simply because these families asked. All of those who gave were anxious to give. Think of the possibilities if every family had sent a letter! It often is a truth that “you have not, because you ask not.” Good things in life come to those who ask.

II.) Persistence in seeking. We won’t find unless we seek. “Search and you will find,” Yeshua says. Allow me to share an example. After forty-seven years, a little girl known only as “Little Miss 1565” was finally identified, thanks to a persistent investigator. You see, in 1944 “Little Miss 1565” died in a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus fire. She was given the name “Little Miss 1565” because that was her morgue number. She was one of seven unidentified victims. Following the fire, no one came forward to positively identify her. But after years of persistent research and investigation that might remind us of the contemporary television series Cold Case, an arson investigator finally found out who she belonged to. Arrangements were made to have her body moved to her own family’s burial plot. Eleanor Cook, who was Little Miss 1565 and her family could finally rest in peace together, bringing some amount of closure to a tragic story. Search and you will find; it is a fact of life. Yeshua’s words “seek and you shall find” also apply to Christian discipleship. When we are called as disciples, we are called to persevere. We are called to be persistent. We are called to stay with it to the finish.

We are called to a lifelong commitment of seeking the Kingdom of YAHVEH. Yeshua used another common image to illustrate this point. He said in Luke chapter 9 “No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of YAHVEH” (9:62). In other words, when we make a commitment to follow HaMashiach in the Kingdom of YAHVEH, it should be a firm, unswerving, lifelong commitment. Such a commitment often requires perseverance and dogged persistence in the face of difficulties, discouragements, worldly enticements and perhaps even persecution. We found that perseverance and persistence were top requirements while establishing a new church. There were mountains of joy and valleys of discouragement. At times we grew very tired. But that is the way it is when starting a new church and going into a building program. People are bound to get tired and discouraged, especially when there are setbacks. But the Apostle Paul reminds us to “not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9). We must keep seeking the Kingdom. We must keep searching for YAHVEH’s truth and will for our lives and our church. Yeshua promises we will find it.

III.) Persistence in knocking. We can’t enter the door of life’s blessings if we don’t knock. “Knock and the door will be opened to you.” I have read that a red clover blossom contains less than one-eighth of a grain of sugar. Seven thousand of these grains are required to make a pound of honey. A honeybee, therefore, must visit fifty-six thousand clover heads to get enough sugar for a pound of honey. Clearly, the honeybee’s task requires persistence. But his labours hold a sweet reward. Another example: in a certain central Tennessee town, there was an old house on the corner of West Main and Church Streets that was under repair for three years or more. Because we passed by that corner practically every day, we watched the progress of the restoration. Previously that old house looked like a dilapidated heap that was about to fall down. Most people wouldn’t have touched it. But evidently the people who bought it saw its potential and they were willing to spend a great deal of money on it. Slowly, but deliberately and persistently, they worked to restore that old house. It began to look better as every week passed. By the time they finished, it was worth a small fortune. Perseverance and persistence made it possible. Sometimes we need such perseverance in our prayer life and Christian living. Yes, at times in our Christian lives and in our church work we will get tired and we will get discouraged. But we must never stop asking, we must never stop searching and we must never stop knocking on the door of opportunity. For if we are persistent and if we persevere, like the butterfly we will get what we need. Like the honeybee, we can hope to reap a sweet reward. And like the people who restored the old house, the door of opportunity may finally be opened to us. So the message to us in this teaching, as we deal with challenges in our Christian lives and in our church, is not to grow weary in doing well, for in due season we will reap if we do not lose heart.