Boldly Persistent

A new wave of applause surged from the sidelines.  I cheered for a fellow staff member who gracefully caught the Frisbee in the end zone, “Kate! You have magnets in your hands!”  Each week this summer the camp staff challenged the students to a friendly game of Ultimate Frisbee.  Being our last game of the summer, everyone was absorbed in each movement of the disc.  The students lined one side of the field with brightly-colored shirts, having just come from competing in a relay competition.  The staff, clad in red, lined the other side as both groups cheered on the players out on the field.  I heard my name called from behind and turned around to see two girls from my small group.  I approached them wondering what they could possibly need that made them walk all the way from the opposite side of the field to find me amongst a sea of red shirts. 

                “Hannah,” one of them began, “I lost my earring back just now, do you have an extra one?”  She had such a simple request for such a small item, however, it seemed out of place in the midst of a Frisbee game about half a mile from the dorms.  This camper wasn’t 8 years old; she was 18 and about to enter into her freshmen year of college.  Was she serious?  I was bewildered by the fact that she would hold out hope for tracking down a random item at such an inconvenient time.  Quickly, my bewilderment melted into enthusiasm because I actually had a whole package of extra earring backs with me at that moment.  The girls expressed their surprise and delight as I retrieved the collection of them from my back pack.  I dispensed one to her and said offhandedly while the pair walked away, “You get what you need if you just ask!”  The phrase “…if you just ask” bounced around in my head as the Lord pressed the truth of it deeper into my heart during the remainder of the afternoon.

                In the process of growing up, we gradually begin to feel silly for asking questions or requesting something we need.  Maybe you can remember a time asking God to give you a puppy or a swimming pool in your bedroom.  God didn’t answer that prayer*, so He must not care, you may have thought.  Our pride overtakes us and we feel as though we must tackle everything alone.  But, the Lord encourages us to cultivate a child-like dependency upon Him.   He reminds us that He stands ready to give us “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3 ) and asks us to make a habit of boldly asking, seeking, and knocking at His door with persistence. 

In an illustration Jesus gives in Luke 11:5-8, Jesus shows us what’s it’s like to boldly persist in our asking:

“And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.'”

What boldness this man had to go in the middle of the night!  However, this appears to be an illustration about how to damage a friendship here –and Jesus applied this story to His Father!  The Father will sometimes seem like an unkind friend who cares not for your needs as He seems to stay tucked in bed.  Oh, but He is not unkind nor careless!  The scripture goes on to say:

“I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.”

One aspect of prevailing prayer is persistence.  There must be importunity in supplication, a waiting on God and allowing Him to meet your needs in His perfect timing and way.  I’m reminded of the lyrics to a well-loved hymn which goes, “Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pains we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”  When the young lady in my small group came up and requested something, even as small as an earring back, I was pleased to meet her need and absolutely delighted that I could.  But, she did have to ask.  God uses the physical world to teach us about the spiritual realm.  The same is true regarding requests to our Heavenly Father – and He is pleased to meet our needs even in the smallest details of life.  Sisters, I encourage you as the academic season gets well underway, continue in prayer and just ask Him!  He delights to give you what you need.

 

 

*There are some prayers God appears not to answer - like that swimming pool in your bedroom (my mom actually prayed this one as a child).  It’s true that another important part of prayer is asking in accordance with God’s will.  Our motives must be Godly and we must not seek any gift to consume it upon our own lusts.  James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your own pleasures.”  God makes it clear that prayer is not a means to get whatever you desire, it is a way to accomplish His will on this earth.  And His will always bring glory to His name, not ours.