Perseverance (Matthew 7:7-11
“Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For each one who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, if his son asks a loaf, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a snake? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him?”
In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus talked about the virtue of perseverance; firstly in its relevance to prayer, and then giving us motivation to persevere in our service to God.
The principle of perseverance (7-8)
“Keep on asking” and it will be given to you.
“Keep on looking” and it will be found.
“Keep on knocking” and the door will be opened.
Of course, what we’re given, what we find and what is opened to us are often things we don’t expect, or even don’t want at the time.
You can look at it like this
Asking – the first level of inquiry.
Seeking – a step up from just asking, putting an action to our inquiry.
Knocking – another step up, yet another more urgent action, putting perseverance to our action which we put to our inquiry.
And of course, Jesus is a good guy so He gives us a bit of motivation… (9-11)
One thing that continuously brings me to my knees about Jesus is how much of Father is really is. In this passage He actually compares His relationship to us to a father’s relationship to his son. And this isn’t a one off mention, a bribe, that’s actually the real deal – He loves us as His children. And that is a bit of a side note on my part but actually what Jesus is saying is that He wants to give us things, just like a father wants to give his son things when he asks for them. When I think about how much more of a Father He is than my earthly father, I can only imagine the gifts He has waiting for me.
There was a reading in my little book that said…
“How to get there:
Go to the end of the path until you get to the gate.
Go through the gate and head straight out towards the horizon.
Keep going towards the horizon.
Sit down and have a rest every now and again.
But keep on going.
Just keep on with it.
Keep on going as far as you can.
That’s how you get there.”
(day twenty-seven: 14.dec.09)
At the time, I thought it was really cool but didn’t really think about too too much. It came at the perfect time (of course it did, it’s Jesus). It was the exact halfway point of my time away. That was on the Monday of what would become a very testing week. It became the reading that I kept coming back to when things were tough, which was fairly often. I didn’t completely realise it at the time, but perseverance is exactly what this passage was talking about. I honestly think if Jesus was man today, this is exactly how He would have spoken Matthew 7. In such a short passage it mentions the words “keep going” four times, each becoming increasingly insistent. Keep going, keep on going, just keep on with it. Ask, seek, knock. Perseverance. (Another little side note: I love that it says “sit down and have a rest every now and then”, like Jesus is acknowledging that perseverance is really hard work. It’s not an easy walk [but when did God promise us an easy life?], that’s why the prize is so huge. He knows. He was human once too). He gives us a promise at the end: “that’s how you get there” – the prize. Yeah, we gotta go towards the horizon, what’s on the horizon? Often perseverance feels like the horizon, it’s never getting any closer, but it’s a journey. Or it feels like we can’t see what we’re walking towards. But that’s all part of it too. Sometimes perseverance is just putting one foot in front of the other, it’s saying “today, I’ll keep walking” --this is something I learnt over my time in China, but especially over the week that followed this reading in my book. Perseverance takes courage, it takes strength, it takes motivation and a heck of a lot of energy, but Jesus has promised us good things.
Pretty sweet find, huh?
