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Mensa Otabil - Persevere


Mensa Otabil - Persevere
TOPICS: Word to Go, Perseverance

Welcome to day number 14 of our Fresh Start. We’ve completed two-thirds of the journey so far; we just have one-third to go-one more week to complete the process. I trust that you will take time in the coming week to really pray concerning all the things you need to do this year.

Luke chapter 18, verses 3 to 5: Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him, saying, «Get justice for me from my adversary.» And he would not for a while, but after a while he said within himself, «Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this woman troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.» Jesus is telling a parable of a stubborn judge who meets a stubborn woman. This judge, Jesus says, doesn’t fear God and doesn’t really care for people. So, a widow comes to him and says, «Judge, I need you to take my case seriously.» The judge doesn’t care for her, but she keeps persisting, and eventually, the judge gives in. Jesus says if a stubborn judge can be changed by a stubborn widow, how much more will your heavenly Father, who is just -He’s not stubborn! — how much more will our prayers be answered?

So, Jesus is talking about persistence in prayer. As we pray throughout the Spirit, we have to keep praying. We don’t just finish praying at the end of Fresh Start and say, «Ah, we’ve done all our prayer for the year.» No! You have to continue praying; you have to continue praying because God hears you and wants you to be persistent in your pursuit of Him. This woman came demanding justice. The judge was not open to her request, but she kept coming back and persisted over and over again.

Now, how do we apply this to our lives? Of course, God does not want you to pray over and over because He is unjust or He has shut His ears or He is not listening to you. But God wants us to have a heart of persistence. Many times, people pray for one thing, they pray for it a second time, and they don’t see any results, and they forget about it. But when you read the Bible, you’ll find that many people prayed persistently. Noah prayed persistently. Abraham prayed persistently. David prayed persistently. Throughout the Bible, even our Lord Jesus Christ prayed persistently. That means you pray until you pray through, and that’s one of the attitudes we must have. We have a faithful God, a just God, who is open to our prayers, but we have to show hunger in our prayer. We have to show desire and earnestness in our prayers.

Of course, if I am a kind of person who would do something for anybody, I wouldn’t want people to take it for granted and come to me casually, without purpose or clear intent, just because they know I will give it to them. God doesn’t want us to treat Him as a slot machine where we just put something in and get something out. He wants us to come to Him with persistence, with intention, with intentionality, with the desire that He will do something for us. In the case of this widow, she got her reward, and in our case, we also get our reward. God rewards our persistent prayer. During this whole period, as we seek the face of the Lord, may we be persistent with Him. May we seek Him until the desires of our hearts are manifested in the will of God for our lives.

Let’s pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, You reward those who diligently seek You. By faith, I receive the answer to my prayers. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Well, we’ve completed two weeks of praying; we have one more week to go. I just want to encourage you to get on board. If you haven’t been praying throughout the last two weeks, this is the final week. Let’s do it well. Let’s push harder for God to do for us what He has promised to do for us in 2023. I’ll catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.