Persistence

Nothing is more persistent than a toddler wanting dessert. Not even mosquitos at sunset. Sometimes it’s just easier to have another cupcake. My Now We Are Three granddaughter reasons that one cupcake is dessert and the second is bedtime snack. Seems reasonable.

But what about forty day persistent? That’s a committed nag. Multiple times in the early books of the Old Testament, we read about forty day times of prayer, particularly when Moses is interceding to keep the We Must All Be Three Israelites from God’s wrath.

Yet God honors these times of persistence. In fact, they are encouraged in the New Testament in several different places including the parable of the woman who hounds an arrogant judge until he finally gives in just to get her to go away (Luke 18). We are exhorted to be persistent in prayer which has always seemed a bit like nagging God to me. In the Old Testament we see patriarchs waiting for YEARS for God’s answers, for example, Abraham and Sarah waiting for the promised child.

There are entries on my prayer list which have been there for years. One of them specifically I am keenly aware it is unlikely I will actually know about any forward progress. Yet it remains. And I trust that God will tell me when to remove it just as He told me to add it. The tension between the just now and the not yet is hard. I want to see God’s work.

I don’t know that I will see His work. But I can trust that it will happen.