A PARABLE OF PERSISTENCE

[Persistence in Prayer]

SANDY RHEMA

VISION: I saw my son’s keys.

HEARD: Teach them to pray.

============

Yesterday my son lost his keys in the house. We rarely lose things in our home, because it is so organized. (One of the reasons is because I can’t stand looking for things!) So we turned the house upside down for those keys. All the while I kept saying, "Lord where are the keys?" We went to bed and still no keys. I continued to pray and asked the Lord if He would either tell me or show me a vision of where they were. As a result, the above is what I saw and heard! That was not exactly what I had in mind, but the Lord wanted an object lesson instead.

This morning as our son was getting ready for school, not only did he not find his keys, but he couldn’t find his watch either. He said he would be lost at school without his watch and went to school in the mulli-grubs.

I woke up feeling like I was fighting a bug or the flu, but it was time to pick up the house. As I glanced at my table, there was an old outdated tape recorder and some tapes that did not belong on it. Because I felt so yucky, I didn’t want to put it all away, but neither did I want to leave the mess on the table because it bothered me.

I took the recorder and put it on the kitchen counter. Then I looked at it on the counter and said, "That’s stupid to clean the table and then clutter my counter!" So I dragged myself into the next room closer to our storage closet and dumped it on that table. I looked at that table and said, "You are almost there, just put it away!" I walked into the storage closet and dumped the old recorder into the box with the old earphone paraphernalia and recorder cords.

For some strange reason as I was doing it, I thought to myself, "Wouldn’t it be terrible to dump this in the box, never looking inside the box, and all the time my son’s keys are in there???" So even though I felt so weak and sickly, I lifted the box down from the high shelf and glanced at the contents. I saw no keys.

As I was starting to put the box back, I thought, "What if his keys are at the bottom of the box, and I stopped too short?" So I lifted the earphones and cords and there were the keys just waiting to be found! How they got there I did not know. I was quite amazed that the Lord has coaxed me one halting step at a time towards the bottom of that box.

This was most definitely a story of persistence. I could have stopped anywhere along the way, and every step was an overcoming one, because I felt so weak and sick. It was not an easy task, but in spite of myself, the Lord answered my prayers and drew me the whole way. I wondered how long it would have been if I had just dumped the recorder in the box without looking. It could have been months till we used that box again.

I told Wayne the story at lunch about finding the keys, and that now our son had also lost his watch. We prayed again. When he came home from school, he saw the keys hanging from the kitchen counter knob, where we usually paste little notes to him. He was grinning ear to ear and thanking the Lord. When he entered his bedroom, the Lord directed his eyes and they fell upon the crack between his storage chest and bed. You guessed it… his watch. As he came out a few minutes later, very happy, Wayne related a very exciting story!!!

Earlier he came in and asked me where his measuring tape was. I didn’t know, and was feeling very wiped out and laying down so he searched by himself. Evidently he went into his shop a second time and said, "Lord the enemy is stealing from us and this needs to stop right now!" As soon as he said this, he looked down and saw the corner of his measuring tape sticking out of a place he had already searched.

============

CONCLUSION

============

{Words to Ponder are summaries of His quickened Words}

WORD TO PONDER: PERSISTENCE RECOVERS ALL

Beloved ones, I know you are weary and frustrated with your losses. I AM drawing you to get your focus off your misery and begin to exercise through prayer, the rights I have given you. It is time to learn how to recover what has been stolen.

Ask Me for help to restore your losses. I seek and find that which is lost. Join Me! Be persistent in your faith until you get your rewards. Do not stop short of your goal, do not settle for less. Begin to put your foot down and command that what the enemy has stolen be returned.

Dear ones, I know you are weary, hurting and discouraged. Let go of the outdated tapes that repeat in your mind. Put the past behind you and don’t give up. Be persistent. With one foot in front of the other, overcome one step at a time. Keep going, you are almost there. As you trust Me to answer your prayers, I will draw you along the right path in spite of yourself. If you do not give up, you shall recover all.

1 Sam 30:3-4,8 NLT

When David and his men saw the ruins and realized what had happened to their families, they wept until they could weep no more….Then David asked the LORD, "Should I chase them? Will I catch them?" And the LORD told him, "Yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you!"