A Lesson on Perseverance

““And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks.”
(Luke 11:9–10 NLT)


The NLT captures the sense of Jesus' teaching on perseverance here. "Keep on". Now this teaching is balanced with Jesus' teaching elsewhere on prayer that a person should not think that their many words will have an impact on God. So it's not repeating a mantra or a well-rehearsed prayer that Jesus is talking about here. No, he is talking about a desperate person who refuses to give up. One who continues to knock on the door even though it's late at night and the noise is waking up the neighbors.

"One day George Mueller began praying for five of his friends. After many months, one of them came to the Lord. Ten years later, two others were converted. It took 25 years before the fourth man was saved. Mueller persevered in prayer until his death for the fifth friend, and throughout those 52 years he never gave up hoping that he would accept Christ! His faith was rewarded, for soon after Mueller’s funeral the last one was saved". (From: George Mueller, Man of Faith)

What are the longings of my heart? What are the loaves of bread I need because of visiting friends? Will I keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking? Or will I give up and assume that somehow, God is not listening to my prayers? Persistence, persistence, persistence! Prayer is an interesting thing. We are going to the God of the universes who already knows the end from the beginning. Yet, prayer is so important both to Him and to us. This teaching from Jesus came as a result of the disciples seeing Him at prayer "in a certain place" and asking Him to teach them to pray. After walking them through the Lord's prayer, he told the story of a man knocking on his friends door after hours looking for bread. He concluded the story with the exhortation to keep on asking, keep on looking, keep on knocking.

Lord, give me perseverance in my faith and in my prayers to you. Help me not to give up. Increase my faith and my faithfulness.

The Key to a Tender Heart

“He *said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.” (Matthew 19:8)

“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

The root cause of every interpersonal conflict from divorce to all out war is the hardness of the human heart. The opposite of hard-heartedness is the tender-heartedness described in Ephesians 4:32. A person develops the tender heart by forgiving people. The source for the strength to forgive comes from a reflection upon Christ's forgiveness. We grow into a deep understanding of all that Christ has forgiven us for and that allows us to forgive others. A life lived that way results in a tender heart. A life of unforgiveness results in a hard heart that demands a certificate of divorce. Such people deceive themselves that changing their circumstances will result in that which only a change of heart condition can accomplish.

I want to be a forgiving person, keeping my heart tender before the Lord by reflecting on His forgiveness of me and extending that same forgiveness to others.

Some years ago, my friend Dave Legg wrote the following about forgiveness:


All too often our approach to conflict and hurt is separation. Unfortunately, separation is never the solution when unity is the problem. When God says make every effort to maintain the unity of the body (Ephesians 4:3), He chose to use a powerful idea. The phrase “make every effort” means literally to strive like a gladiator. In other words, it’s not a casual suggestion or something to do if we’re not busy. Often, a refusal to forgive a wrong keeps us locked in the past and unable to move into the future.

In Matthew 18 Jesus tells the story of the unforgiving servant who ends up in prison at the end. Jesus then concludes the parable by saying, "this is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart". I believe the prison that Jesus is talking about here is the prison of a hardened heart. It is a prison of the unforgiving person's own making.

Forgiveness is the key to a tender heart and a tender heart is key to finishing the race. Most people have thin skins and hard hearts. Christ followers must have thick skins and tender hearts.

Grow or Die

Growth

At a conference a few years ago, then 98 year old Jim Downing called together all those present who were above the age of seventy. He then gave them a message that only one of his years and stature could give to that group: “If you’re not growing you are dying.”

I’ve made a study of those who are old in years but are young in their spirit. They are still pressing hard in the abundant life that Jesus gives. They are people like Caleb who said “I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in.” (Joshua 14:11)

The one common denominator I’ve found with such people is that they keep growing. So how does one continue to grow as a person? A couple of years ago, I created the acrostic GROWTH to help me remember some key components in my own growth. They stand for:

God Caused

Response to Circumstances

Oneness with Christ

Word of God

Truth and Love in Community

Hidden Spiritual Disciplines

I need to keep a handle on the fact that God is the author of growth – He causes it. That helps me respond correctly to the circumstances of life, because by faith I can see God’s hand in all things, always working for my growth. I only have the ability to see and respond rightly to these life circumstances through my oneness with Christ, my unity with Him as I abide in Him. I am able to abide in Him only to the extent that I abide in the Word of God. I live out the truth of the Word of God as I love people in community. My secret energy source for continuing to grow is directly tied to a few spiritual disciplines that are largely hidden from view, but are part of my intimate relationship with Christ. Those are the elements of growth in my own life and I’ll work to unpack these further in my next few posts.

Keep Things Simple

When Jesus sent The Twelve out on their first missionary trip, he told them not to take anything for the journey - no staff, no bag, no bread, no extra clothes. The Message gives a hint as to why:

“He said, “Don’t load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you are the equipment. 

(Luke 9:3–4 MESSAGE)

According to the Message, the reason that Jesus did not want the twelve to take things on their missionary journey was that he did not want them loaded down with extra baggage. They themselves were the equipment that God would use.

Later Jesus said  “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:16–17 NIV)

Jesus teaches two main lessons here. First, he teaches that no person is disqualified from the Kingdom based on their physical age or maturity. Children are welcome. The second teaching is that children actually have an advantage when it comes to the Kingdom because all must receive the Kingdom of God like a child. The message stresses the simplicity of a child. While adults seem to complicate things, children see things in a simple way. In order to experience the Kingdom we must receive it in a simple way.

Be wary of overly complex solutions to advancing the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom moves in the simple hearts of children. We must strive to keep our teaching about the Kingdom accessible, viral, reproducible and simple.

Lorne Sanny once said that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. This old guy thinks that keeping things simple is a key to finishing well. “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.”

(2 Timothy 2:4 NAS95)

Hey Old Guy - What Keeps You Going? Lesson 2: Walk By Faith

Today I received a phone call from the office of the Seattle Prosecutor. The person on the other end told me that she had my Bible in her possession. Two years ago, thieves kicked in our front door and stole many things including my briefcase which contained the Bible I had used since the early 1990s. Now, for reasons unexplained, my Bible was sitting on the desk of someone in the Seattle Prosecutor's office. I expressed the hope that the person who stole it had read it. In fact I've prayed off and on that the people who broke into our home would read my Bible and find Jesus. (I have no idea if that happened, but it encourages me to think that they might have). This afternoon, a manila envelope containing my Bible was placed next to my front door.

 When I came home and Iris handed me the Bible, I held it for a few moments and then I began to page through it. I looked at promises that I'd underlined and remembered where I was when I first heard God speak them to me. I was really surprised by the emotion I felt and by the memories that came to me just by skimming through the pages. Then my eye fell on the title page and a statement I had written there: "Pray that God would always keep me in over my head".

This afternoon, standing in my office and holding my old, stolen, and now returned Bible, I thought about all the ways the Lord has answered that prayer and how much it has shaped my life. There have been so many times that I have taken on something that there is no way I could do on my own. In other words, if there is no God, I'm sunk. Everything from pioneering new ministries and moving my family to the former Soviet Union right after its breakup to my current role in leading the Nav work among the U.S. Army - all of those things are beyond my capability. And I'm not just talking about ministry challenges. Marriage, child raising, finances, disappointments and failures have all challenged me to the breaking point and pushed me to my knees.

So, I recommend it here as lesson two in how to keep going over the long haul. Trust God with your life and take the risk to pray the prayer I prayed years ago. Ask God to always keep you in over your head. I know, it's a risky prayer, but not really because our Father is a strong and loving God.

What's the practical lesson from the life of Jesus? It's this: He is looking for faith. Once Jesus told a story about a widow who needed justice and bugged an unrighteous judge until he finally granted her request. At the end of that story, He asked a question: When the Son of Man returns will He find faith on the earth? The people of faith are not found near the shore where their feet can touch the bottom, but out in the deep water where they can't make it for long unless there really is a Lord who promises to be with them always, even to the end of the world.

Hey Old Guy - What Keeps You Going? Lesson 1: Count the Cost

“In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple”

(Luke 14:33 NIV)

Jesus had just expressed entrance into the kingdom as a wedding banquet in which the bridegroom was so desirous that guests come in that he compelled people to do so. The invitation was broad and extended even to strangers in the street. This is the calling from God's point of view. He is calling us to a wonderful banquet.

This is however, not the whole story. To follow Christ means to put Christ ahead of everything. He comes before all other relationships and before any possession. In addition, each person who follows Christ will be asked to carry his or her own cross. That is, there will be life circumstances - unique to each individual that calls a person to put "self" to death. Jesus urges the crowds basking in the warmth of His presence, to consider the cost of following Him.

I'm fifty four years old and I'm often around Christ followers who are quite a bit younger than me. More and more, I'm being asked the question that I used to ask "old guys" who follow Jesus: "How do you keep going?" I think there are several answers to that question - and I'll take them on over the next few blog posts - but it seems to me that Jesus is giving one of the keys to beginning well: count both the blessings and the cost to following Jesus. If you calculate accurately, I believe you'll find that the costs are far outweighed by the benefits, but there are costs.

I'm still challenged to remember that I am not exempt from taking up my cross. That is true of every Christ follower. People in their 20s think I'm old, yet I think that I probably have some years yet to serve and glorify the Master. I want to follow hard all the way to the end. I must continue to count the cost.

Lord, help me to live as a disciple today. Help me to put my relationship with you above all earthly relationships, help me to let go of my possessions before you, and help me to take up my cross - whatever it is - on a daily basis.

Was Jesus Goal Oriented or People Oriented?

I admit that I sometimes get so caught up in meeting my goals that I forget about people along the way. It's tough to admit that since I am in the people business. On the other hand, I struggle with the fear of man and the desire to please everyone. This can cause the pendulum to swing in the opposite direction resulting in my missing the very goals that God told me to pursue. What about Jesus? Was he more of a task guy or a people guy?

“And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal.’” Luke 13:32

Jesus had a goal: to reach Jerusalem and His eventual atoning death. In the meantime, he also had short-term objectives: to cast out demons and heal people (teaching is not mentioned in this verse, but He was doing that also). Nothing - not the power of the king or the opposition of the religious leaders could stop Jesus from His focused effort. Jesus did not fear Herod or allow the death threat to get Him off track because He saw and knew the ultimate power of God. He made the clear statement: "I will reach my goal" and He did.

Depending on the Holy Spirit, I must discern which goals are God-given and then I must doggedly pursue those goals. I also must remember that there are things that God wants me to do along the route in my pursuit of the main goal. Jesus did not just ignore everyone and everything as He marched to Jerusalem. No, he healed people, battled demonic forces, and taught people about the Kingdom of God. These things He did as He was moving toward His ultimate goal. In this and so many ways He is a real example for me to follow.