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Persistence Pays

"It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work [of telling his Good News to Others], and so we never give up."¹

You may have read about the boy who loved to go house to house handing out gospel tracts every Sunday afternoon with his pastor father. On one rainy, cold Sunday his father didn't want to go out on visitation so the son, with his dad's permission, went out alone.

At the last house the son was visiting he rang the bell many times but nobody came to the door. When he turned to leave, he felt constrained to go back and try one more time. This time he knocked very hard on the door … waited patiently … and in a while an elderly lady answered. He gave her his last tract and told her that God loved her.

As the story goes, the following Sunday at the lad's church when the pastor gave his people the opportunity to share any blessings they had received the previous week, an elderly lady in the back stood to share how, on the previous wet, cold Sunday, she was at wits end. Her husband had passed away and she had no friends or family in the area and was about to end her life. She shared how she had ignored the persistent ringing of her doorbell but when she heard a loud knocking, she decided to see who was there. She was surprised to find a young lad who told her that God loved her and handed her a piece of literature. "I read the literature," she said, "and prayed the prayer to ask Jesus to be my Savior. And as your church address was on the literature, I decided to come here to church today."

We never know just how God will use us if we are but persistent! This story reminds me how, when I was a teenager growing up in my small hometown church, each year we would have a week of "revival" (evangelistic outreach meetings), but not a single adult would ever go house to house to give people an invitation to attend. One year one of the pastor's teenage sons and I were the only ones who would do this visitation. Another year I went out alone.

So now today, many years later, I'm still going house to house … but via the web and email … to thousands of homes, families, and individuals worldwide every day. As a teen I could never have imagined in all my wildest dreams where I would be and what I would be doing today.

And if you and I keep on serving God day by day, we will never know the results until we get to Heaven for only eternity will reveal what our faithful service to the Lord will reveal.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to be faithful in my service to you no matter how small or large my tasks may be, and grant that my efforts (with your help) will affect other lives not only for time, but also for eternity. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. 2 Corinthians 4:1 (TLB)(NLT).

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