RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Have you ever wondered why some prayers are answered instantly and others seem to take years before the answer comes? I had often thought about that in relationship to my family. Often I’ve prayed for people to come to Christ and it seemed like only a few days or weeks before they came to Christ. But it was different with my family.
When I came to know Christ, I wanted my friends and family to know the Savior that I had found. I was excited about the love of Christ and desired to share that love with those whom I loved. When I shared with my mother what had taken place in my life, she responded, “I’m not a Christian and I’ll never become one. Don’t ever talk to me again about Christ.”
What do you do when you can’t talk to your mother about God? I’ll tell you what I did. I talked to God about my mother. But it seemed the more I prayed, the more difficult it became. I loved her and wanted her to know the salvation that comes through grace that I’d come to know. But the only thing I could do was to pray.
I prayed for an entire year, then five years. I continued praying for over ten years. But nothing seemed to help. I prayed for twenty years, and almost felt that it was a hopeless cause. Right at the time I was about to give up on praying, I received a phone call from her. “Sammy,” she said, “I’ve been a proud woman. I’ve been a bitter woman. I need God. I need Jesus. I need a church.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! God answered my prayers. For over twenty years, I prayed. God was faithful, and my mother came to know Christ. She prayed with me on the phone to trust Jesus with her life. Her favorite thing to do during the last ten years of her life was to go to the prayer meeting. It was such a joy to watch my mom grow in Christ.
Meanwhile, God did a wonderful work in my life over those twenty years. He kept me in a place of dependence upon Him. I don’t understand all of the reasons that it took so long for my mother to come to Christ. But I do know that the lack of an answer kept me on my knees before the throne of God. It kept me seeking the face of God.
Jesus told the disciples a parable about persisting in prayer. The story is summarized saying, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Lk. 18:1 NIV). It’s so easy to give up – to become discouraged and quit. But God bids us to come to Him. He desires that we be persistent in prayer.
The purpose of persistency isn’t to get God to do something that He doesn’t want to do. It’s to get to know Him – to discover His mind in a matter. The more we come into His presence about a matter, the more intimately we get to know Him. We learn what’s on His heart. Ultimately, we not only see the answer to our prayers, but we have an even greater experience. We get to know Him! That’s why He wants us to persist. He desires that we have time with Him – that we get to know Him. My mother coming to Christ was a great answer to prayer for me. But perhaps the best thing about all of those years of unanswered prayer was that it kept me seeking God. Persist. And get to know God.