Persistence

Persistence – What have you had to work at for a very long time? Each of us have had something in our life that we have worked at and for to attain. Maybe you struggled academically in school, maybe you came from VERY humble means, maybe you overcame illnesses and injuries. A few of us might admit that the largest obstacle to overcome was ourselves!

I came across a saying this past week. In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins. . . not through strength, but through persistence!

This isn’t a motivational or inspirational message though. I do not intend to tell you that you can achieve the goal through hard work. No, today, I come to tell you that, with regards to your salvation, you, and I, have indeed been the obstacle. We find we are more often the rock than the stream. We didn’t have to wear God down until he was finally willing to save us. If anything, it is the other way around.

All which I took from thee I did but take,

Not for thy harms,

But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.

All which thy child's mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home :

Thus The Hound of Heaven catches its prey. The “victim” finds out, after years of pursuit, that the hound sought its very best all along.

Fleeing from God isn’t just for non-Christians. Christians do it all the time. They may even be among the more severe of transgressors. God calls us to step out in ministry, and we let fear hold us back. God calls us to give sacrificially, and we worry about providing for our family. God calls us to commit the future to his hand, and we hold back because we question if he will give us the future we would want.

This God, who withheld nothing from us, giving up even his own Son, how could he not provide for us in all those things and so many more. Yahweh God chased the people he created through many years, finally stating his love for us in a way that cannot be denied on the cross of Calvary and on to the empty tomb!

Pastor Craig