When His goodness meets your persistance

images (1)God has been speaking to me a lot in the last year from Luke 11, from the story of the persistent friend who asks for help with supplies at midnight from another friend and receives everything he needs because of his persistance. Let’s look at the story:

“And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves; ‘for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him”; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give to you’?.

“I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.”

Jesus is appealing here to our logic and to the fact that we would respond to a persistent request from a friend, even if it costs us something.  Jesus emphasizes that really the friend got his request fulfilled not so much because of the friendship, but it was his persistance that payed off.

Jesus uses this illustration as an introduction to the lesson He wanted to teach. Next verse starts with: ‘So, I say to you … ” In other words, based on what you learned from the story I just told you, please apply the same concepts to your relationship with Me – I respond to persistence, I respond to persistent asking, seeking and knocking and I always give to everyone who persists in these 3 things.

“So, I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For EVERYONE who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. ”

Jesus is saying here – if you ask Me for anything persistently (provided that it is part of the will of God, as He only gives what is in His will and good for us) you WILL receive, if you seek Me with all your heart persistently, you will find Me, or if you seek for anything from Me. If you knock on any door you want to see opened – the door of deliverance, the door of freedom, the door of breakthrough, the door of blessing, the door of guidance and destiny, it WILL be opened.

Why? Because I respond to PERSISTENCE from EVERYONE who does these 3 things. I said: EVERYONE who asks receives. No one is left out, no one is excluded, no one with a sincere heart towards God will be excluded.

There is are 2 exceptions where God says in the Bible that people will be excluded from receiving things from God, apart from the obvious living in disobedience and rebellion:

  1. If you hold unforgiveness towards another brother, God will not forgive you your own sins, which means you are cut from fellowship with God and blessings cannot flow your way.
  2. If you ask doubting, wavering, the Bible says: ‘Let not that man think he will receive ANYTHING from God’. Therefore, God wants us to ask in faith, in trust that He is going to answer.

But, in general, for a Christian who does not live in willful sin, who does not hold unforgiveness and asks in faith, with PERSISTENCE, EVERYONE who asks receives.

This seems almost too hard to believe and too good to be true to people like us who live in this broken world which disappoints us often. Jesus, knowing this, He continues by qualifying His statement and explaining why this is reasonable for us to believe about God, why this is true of Him, that He will not let us down.

‘If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? ‘Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

‘If you then, being evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the HOLY SPIRIT to those who ask Him!”

Matthew relates the same teaching by ending with “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give GOOD THINGS to those who ask Him!”

So, we see from the two passages above that Jesus is appealing to our logic. We are evil, yet we do good to those who are dependent on us and whom we love. Therefore, Him who is good, how much more will He give us – His dependent and His children – all the good things we need.

And what does He promise to give – first Himself – ‘the Holy Spirit’ and secondly ‘good things’.

He is appealing to us to understand that if we would do good, though we still have so much evil in us, why don’t we expect Him to do good, in whom there is no evil? Why do we not trust Him? Why do we doubt Him or do we think He is worse than us? That would be an insult to a God who gave His only Son to die in our place.

He is encouraging us here to step out of our distrust, out of the learned behaviour of expecting disappointment, which was drummed into us through the disappointments we experienced living in this broken world. And He is urging us on to take that leap of faith to believe He is holy, perfectly good, never would do one thing to harm us and completely well intended towards us.

Will you trust Him today? Which areas do you need to bring to Him in faith and persist till you get the answer. Remember this formula:

PUSH – Pray Until Something Happens – many give up after they applied P and they don’t push through until they get the result desired through persistence, don’t be one of them, God is worthy of more of our trust and we are destined to live and enjoy more of His goodness manifested in our lives.

God does say in Hebrews: ‘By FAITH and PERSEVERANCE we enherit the PROMISES.”

FAITH + PERSEVERANCE = PROMISES

So let’s trust Him and share below in the comments the answers you received to the prayer of faith and persistence. God bless you. Mari

I invite you to build a faith community together with me. Join my social media channels and let’s connect, especially if you want freedom or fullness in Christ.

My Telegram has a ministry channel. On Tiktok I have many videos and new ones regularly.

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