Exodus 9:1. Persistent Faith To Keep Praying and Keep Trying – Kevin E. Jesmer 11-2-14

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” (NIV)

     There are times when God calls us to attempt a certain mission again and again and again. Look at verse 1, ““Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” (NIV) This is the fifth time God sent Moses back to Pharaoh with the demand “Let my people go”. Five times, sending him with the same message and getting the same response, the hardening of the Pharaoh’s heart. By this time Moses may have been tired and discouraged. But amazingly, he continues to obey.

Jesus taught us a similar thing in with the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (NIV)

In the parable, the widow was granted justice because of her persistence. Look at verse 7, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?”  She was granted justice and freedom from her adversaries. God will also bring about justice to those who pray persistently.

God also associates persistence with faith. Look at Luke 18:8, “I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”  In the end times, will Jesus find anyone who persistently and intensely prays to God for the things he wants us to be persistent about? For Moses it was to see his people set free from their bondage to Pharaoh. To us, it is something else.

God himself is an example of persistence. He tries to reach out to a people who are hell-bent on sinning against him. People resist his gestures of love again and again. But God does not stop trying. He persistently tries to love us. He persistently tries to save us from our sin and bring us into his eternal kingdom. His persistent love is manifest in Jesus Christ. John 3:16 reads, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  In this sense, persistence in the mission God has called us to do is a reflection of the character of God himself.

If you take an assessment of your life, there must be a mission that God is sending you on again and again. Some of these missions are very difficult and God does not want you to give up trying to fulfill that mission, especially when you know that it is the right thing to do and is the will of God. In these cases, God wants us to be persistent. And through that persistence, we discover that our persistence is richly rewarded. Moses discovered persistence is rewarded.

The question arises, “What does God want me to be persistent about?” Christians are guilty of praying for some things that are not the will of God. Do they keep on praying for things, year after year, that is not the will of God? I hope not. This is where discernment comes in. We need insight to know what the will of God is in the first place.

The first time that I experienced this whole concept of persistent prayer and persistent attempts to see the will of God done was in UBF ministry. There would be people from other countries wanting to come to Summer Bible Conference. They needed visas. But they would be refused a visa. But, based on the parable of the persistent widow, they would try again and again with lots to crying out prayer. And do you know what? Most people got their visas. Frank Drown has been praying for the Native people in NW Ontario for over 30 years. He and Marie have not stopped praying and asking people to join in the mission. God is blessing that prayer. Our two missionary families are praying to go to remote communities in Canada. They pray persistently. This is pleasing to the Lord. I need to learn that kind of prayer.

We must also beware of thinking that our persistent prayers are actually making the work of God happen. This is not true. Our sincerity and our persistence can actually be our human effort to force God to do something. It can actually be a works based faith. We can praise our own efforts and pat ourselves on the back for praying so persistently. This is a sin because it takes away the glory from God and places it on us. The Israelites weren’t delivered because Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh again and again. It is because of the grace of God. It is all God. Our persistence is simply an expression of our faith and a mean though which God wishes to reveal his glory.

God wants me to pray for some things persistently. I must pray for my kids and my family members to remain in Jesus. I must pray that a Native founded and Native led and Native propagated Church be established in a certain remote Canadian First Nation Community. I must pray that KBC may continue to grow and bear fruit to the glory of God. I must pray for marriages to be blessed across our land. I must pray that the kingdom of God may spread across the face of the earth. May the glory of Jesus shine forth.