Determined!

What does it mean to be Persistent? continuing to do something or to try something even though it is difficult even if others want you to stop.

“The devil's happy when the critics run you off.”

Craig D. Lounsbrough “To tie a knot at the end of your rope means that you have a rope as well as the ability to tie a knot. And while that’s not necessarily great news, imagine what things would be like without a rope or ability.”

A.C. Dixon Commentator, Expositor who once worked with R.A. Torry “When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do. And so on. But when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do.”

I. The phrase used to describe the widow’s persistence, she is wearing me out, is boxing terminology.

Praying hard is going twelve rounds with God. A heavyweight prayer bout with God Almighty can be excruciating and exhausting, but that is how the greatest prayer victories are won.

A. Praying hard is more than words. “It’s praying through” Praying through is all about consistency

B. Mark Batterson in His book The Circle Maker “Praying Through is like, It’s circling Jericho so many times it makes you dizzy.

1. Like the story Jesus told about the persistent widow who drove the judge crazy with her relentless requests, praying through won’t take no for an answer. Circle makers know that it’s always too soon to quit praying because you never know when the wall is about to fall. You are always only one prayer away from a miracle.”

B. Praying hard is two-dimensional: praying like it depends on God and working like it depends on you.

C. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and there is no more desperate act than praying hard. There comes a moment when you need to throw caution to the wind and draw a line in the sand. There comes a moment when you need to defy protocol, drop to your knees, and pray for the impossible.

D. For the persistent widow, this was that moment.

Praying Until Something Happens (P.U.S.H.). God’s delay does not mean denial. Even if what you have been in need of has not come to pass, the fact that you wake up to see another day gives you another opportunity

1. “Holy desperation, brings Spiritual desperadoes.” God is still honoring those who defy protocol with their bold prayers. Her unrelenting persistence was the only difference between justice and injustice.

2. The unrighteous judge finally gave in to her plea because he knew that she would not stop coming to him until she received what she wanted.

3. Resilience manifests itself both in being and doing. Resilience is more than something you do; it is who you are.

As Oswald Chambers explained, “Some prayers are followed by silence because they were not right for us, others because they are bigger than we can understand. It will be a wonderful moment for some of us when we stand before God and find that the prayers we clamored for in the early days and imagined were never answered, have been answered in the most amazing way, and that God’s silence has been the sign of the answer. Further, sometimes the silence of God is meant to instill dependence upon him.”

Jesus was saying that continual prayer until he comes is not only the evidence of faith but the means of building faith until HIS return.

E.M. Bounds “(persistent or pressing) praying is the earnest inward movement of the heart toward God.”

First Peter 1:6—9 In all this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

John Wesley, Oh Lord, let me not live to be useless.

Brian Bell What is this kind of prayer? Not just uttering words. It’s the urge of life towards God & Heavenly things, It’s the setting of the mind on the things above. It’s every detail of every day being mastered by that urge.

Closing “ We will call her Esther, Esther was 80 when I met her…one day she said Pastor can I show you my “hit list?” I said sure not knowing what I would discover… She pulled out a tattered piece of paper with lines through names… It had 100 names on it… She said she had started the list over 30 years currently 10 names didn’t have lines through it… She said I started praying that the Lord would let me witness these coming to faith, and He has… I believe that until the last name is marked off, I won’t go to glory… that day I learned the secret of praying through… and she and I agreed for her list to be complete!