Christian Pathway

Luke 18:1-8
Persistence, how many things in your life have been solved by persistence. Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States said “Persistence and determination are omnipotent.”

I am here today because of my mothers persistence , my mum wouldn’t go anywhere, and sat in the waiting room with the nurses pleading with her to go home, then all the doctors left, and just the consultant stayed making some notes, and when he was about to go home he encountered my mum until dr LaVelle said, “when a mother is as persistent as you experience says I should look. Come here child. So he went back with the sister of the clinic so I heard giving my mum the evil eye. That afternoon I was having half my inner ear removed and they twice had the conversation, if he’s here in the morning he will probably be ok?
That’s just my story
Various stories show that persistence often beats natural talent which is why a kid from Leyton who was not maybe not the most naturally talented ended up as famous and have such a career as David Beckham

David Beckham Took 100+ free kicks a day every day 7 days a week, He once said: “I must have taken tens of thousands of free kicks. I’d stay behind after training every day and just keep hitting them.”

Harry Kane
Rejected by Arsenal at age 8 for being “too small.” Later released by Watford and struggled in early loan spells. He was a late one to mature,

Thomas Edison and his team tested over 6,000 materials and made more than 1,000 attempts before creating a successful light bulb. He didn’t mass-produce thousands himself, but his invention led to the first commercially viable incandescent bulb in 1880

Sir James Dyson produced 5,126 failed prototypes over 15 years before producing the bagless vacuum, and they are still refining it today

These people were all persistent, a character trait they all had was that Persistent people treat failure as information, not defeat.

They learnt from the process of keeping going.

Persistence forces you to engage with problems longer, which leads to learning more. Persistence helps you discover what works and why, building expertise.
Persistent people adjust, refine, and try again they turn and think of mistakes as stepping stones.

Persistent people are defacto resilient people because failure teaches this and this very resilience helps you stay grounded during setbacks, making you emotionally stronger. Facing repeated challenges without giving up trains your mind to endure discomfort and uncertainty.

Which gives us a clue as to why our lord wants us persistent in prayer. But why, when he heard the first time, Our lord is always present in all places, at once. So rest assured he has heard your prayer. Our prayers may not always be answered for reasons we may not understand. Jesus in Gethsemane (Luke 22:42) said
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…”
Even Jesus prayed for a different outcome. However The cup wasn’t removed—but strength was given,enough to endure for me for you, and redemption for us all came through the suffering.

Which teaches us as in this story , the bad judge in this story is not God, albeit we may think of him as such . Being as we feel like children when praying we often think if God isn’t doing what we want then he is the unjust judge in this story who or care what people think , However, we know God isn’t an unjust judge as Jesus says he. Is a righteous judge he will see that we get justice, and quickly (in gods time).

Then he asks us a question,

like his columbo moment he asks > when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

This gives us a clue as to why he wants persistence

Jesus calls us to persistence in prayer because persistence in prayer has the same affect as persistence in other builds strength—and strength becomes the foundation for faith and faith the path redemption. In hard times, resilience, and persistence persistently connects us to divine power, allowing God to help us in ways we may not yet understand.

Persistence as I said earlier makes us stay with the problem longer, and in our case it gives the holy spirit longer to work on us. Which is why prayer is sometimes answered by how we react to the the subject of our prayer.

So as we discovered in our bible study, often what on the face of it seems like Jesus asking something of us ,

its actually Jesus doing something for us. So like sabbath is for us, so is this, god wants persistence not because he hasn’t heard, but maybe we haven’t heard what he wants us to do or feel, or act. Persistence builds stamina and faith through the daily process of coming into contact with the greatest power ever.

The weakest prayer (I don’t know how you define a weak prayer) is actually the most powerful thing you can ever do. You are more powerful than all the leaders of the world ever combined when you pray, because the thing you are communing with is greater than all these and knows your heart. The widow in Jesus time was one of the least powerful people ever, but jesus used her to say persistence paid off with an unjust judge, to basically say how much better will you do with one that loves you. You can feel as powerless as a widow in Jesus time through life, but prayer puts you in touch with a god that loves you
However the main reason
persistent prayer builds faith, and faith is what jesus wants us to have to be close to him.

Being close to him is what the entire bible from genesis to revelations is all about.