“Our praying needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage that never fails.” E.M. Bounds[1]
I’ve often said, “Perspective is Everything.” I am convinced that it is enormously important to see the world from the right perspective: God’s perspective.
But in prayer, Persistence is equally weighty. Jesus said so. He told a parable to his disciples so they could get a better grasp of its importance.
`“Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up). He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither reverenced and feared God nor respected or considered man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Protect and defend and give me justice against my adversary.’
And for a time he would not; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have neither reverence or fear for God nor respect or consideration for man, Yet because this widow continues to bother me, I will defend and protect and avenge her, lest she give me intolerable annoyance and wear me out by her continual coming or at the last she come and rail on me or assault me or strangle me.’
Then the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says! And will not [our just] God defend and protect and avenge His elect (His chosen ones), who cry to Him day and night? Will He defer them and delay help on their behalf? I tell you, He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily.
However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [persistence in] faith on the earth?’” Luke 18:1-8 (AMP)[2]
I’ve always thought of Jesus’s last question, “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [persistence in] faith on the earth?” as him thinking out loud, mumbling to himself, not really addressing anyone else. He had previously expressed exasperation at the disciples’ lack of faith, in the incident of the demon possessed boy from whom the disciples could not cast out the demon.
“Jesus … said, ‘You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?’” (Matthew 17:17, NASB).[3]
When the disciples privately asked Jesus, after He cast out that demon, why they couldn’t drive it out He told them their faith was too little. Again the issue of faith.
Then He blows my mind by saying that a tiny amount of faith, the size of a small seed, can move mountains.
So I ask myself, what size is my faith? Is it as tiny as a small seed? Is my faith small enough to move mountains? Or is it even smaller?
If my faith is as small as a tiny seed, when is the last time I moved a mountain?
Or cast out a demon?
I know there are mountains that need moving. Mountains of spiritual obstacles opposed to the power and presence of God. And I know there are demon possessed people that need deliverance. We call their problems by other names too often. They need to be set free from chains that bind them to destructive ways of life.
What size faith do I have? What size faith do you have?
Do we have eyes to see the spiritual realities, to see things as Jesus sees them, to gain God’s perspective?
Do we want to see?
Do we want to exercise our puny faith so it grows big muscles so we can bind the strong man and plunder his house (Mark 3:27)? Jesus has defeated that satanic enemy of mankind. We only need believe big enough in our strong Savior. And nothing will be impossible to us (Matt. 17:20).
I want to believe big in our big God. How about you?
Our enemies are beginning to look big to us and ourselves to seem like grasshoppers in their eyes. Let’s remember God is with us, not them (Numbers 13:25ff)!
God help us not to fail but persist in faith and faith-filled prayer, so that Jesus will not say of us if we fail, it was “because of your little faith … For if you had faith even as small as a tiny mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would go far away. Nothing would be impossible” (Matthew 17:20, TLB).
Let’s pursue that mustard seed faith so that what appears to be impossible to us, when we see through Jesus’s eyes, we find is not impossible, because impossible doesn’t exist in God’s economy.
Bakersfield She Is Safe Advocacy Group is doing just that. With a handful of women, we have:
- committed to raising awareness of the need of women and girls in north India to be set free from the horrors of sex trafficking and brothel life, where girls are used up and become old before their time and baby girls born to them are used in the sex trade,
- committed to calling more Christian women in Bakersfield to join us,
- committed to raising $15,000 dollars over the next year to help fund Transformation Groups in north India to train women in skills to give themselves and their families better lives, breaking free of the iron grip of brothel life. And woven into every fiber of what the TG’s do is the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ which truly sets them free.
What are you doing? Share your faith ventures by leaving a comment in the comment box.
Consider joining us, the Bakersfield Advocacy Group, in advocating for those who have no voice. Or form an Advocacy Group in your town. Go to She Is Safe (www.shissafe.org) to learn more.
Whatever you do, “Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don’t stand back and let them die. Don’t try to disclaim responsibility by saying you didn’t know about it. For God, who knows all hearts, knows yours, and he knows you knew! And he will reward everyone according to his deeds” (Proverbs 24:11-12, TLB).[4]
Adapted and re-posted from the Abide Women’s Prayer Group blog, a ministry of the Women of The Bridge Bible Church, Bakersfield, CA. Written by Jacque Wallace.
[1] http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/942850.E_M_Bounds
[2] Amplified Bible (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation https://www.biblegateway.com/
[3] New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation https://www.biblegateway.com/
[4] Living Bible (TLB)
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Taken from https://www.biblegateway.com .