A few years ago, my wife and I were invited to watch one of our grandchildren at her gymnastics class. These little girls were flipping all over the mats. It was amazing to see how fearless they were and how well they were doing at mastering these exercises.
There was one of those tasks that grabbed my attention as these little girls lined up and were given instruction. They approached a large, padded cylinder and the instructor demonstrated what they were to do on it. They would back up to it and leap as high as they could so their backs met the top of the cylinder. The instructor would then roll it back until they landed on their hands. The intent was to help them learn to do back flips.
This was going to be interesting. Not only was our precious granddaughter one of the youngest in the class, but she is also small for her age. The cylinder loomed well above her head. These hinderances to her task did not seem to bother her. When it was her turn, she leapt in the air, but did not get nearly high enough to complete the roll over. Undaunted, she tried it again, and again, and again. The rest of the class had moved on to other activities, but she stayed at it. Finally, with a lot of help from the instructor, she managed to roll over the apparatus completing her first “backflip”! Today, she does that exercise with ease. However, that skill would have never been accomplished without her persistence.
As men who seek to honor God in our lives, we are called to this unwavering level of persistence. It is not in the effort of completing a task, but in our determination to see God respond to our prayers. In Luke 18, Jesus gives us another of his parables to help us more fully understand the heart of God when we come to him with our requests.
The picture is of a woman seeking justice from a judge who was rejecting her pleas. However, because of her persistence in asking, the judge is eventually worn down and her request is granted. Jesus describes the application of this story in Luke 18:6-8, 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?”
This is a story of contrasts. The judge in the story is said to be unjust and fears neither God nor man. Even with this negative description, the persistence of the woman eventually wears him down. However, the one to whom we bring our needs is a loving Father who wants nothing but the best. Therefore, our persistence is not a means of wearing God down until he gives in to our request. Instead, it is a demonstration of our level of faith. God will meet our needs according to his will and with all the riches in heaven. But he wants us to show him that we believe that to be true. This happens as we are persistent in our prayer and confident in our trust that God will work to do what is in our eternal good.