Dancing in Grace

Chapter 9 Breakthrough Faith Our motto must continue to be perseverance. And ultimately I trust the Almighty will crown our efforts with success. William Wilberforce I love the story that the prayerful pastor Dee Duke tells of a lesson his father taught him when Dee was a young boy. They were down by the docks of a shipyard. His father leaned against a large yacht and started pushing it. At first the huge vessel stayed put. But eventually this man’s sweat and straining of muscles finally paid off. Although the ship probably weighed a couple of tons, it relented to the pressure of one man’s persistent effort. He then squatted down, looked in his son’s eyes and said, “I don’t know how it works, but somehow my energy is stored up in that ship until there is enough to move it. If I had quit, even seconds too early, it wouldn't have moved, and all my pushing would have been wasted. And guess what? If you had helped me, it would have moved twice as fast.” Dee then makes this application: As you seek to make prayer essential in your church, you will be like my dad pushing that ship. The more people you persuade to push with you, the sooner it will move. Don't give up before the results start to come. You never know when they're just about to happen. Keep praying. Get others to pray with you. You'll be amazed at how God moves. Just before going to sleep one night, I was reading a biography of a British evangelist who used the term “breakthrough faith.” God does some amazing things through his children who continue believing in him and persevere in prayer. He pointed out examples in the New Testament of breakthrough faith: – The men who tore through a roof and lowered their friend on a mat in order for Jesus to heal him (Luke 5:18-20). – The Canaanite woman who cried out to Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter. Her persistence led Jesus to say, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted" (Matthew 15:28). – The woman who suffered twelve years with bleeding who worked her way through a crowd to touch Jesus’ cloak and was healed (Mark 5:25-29). In our break room at work, someone posted a card with these simple but profound words: P.U.S.H. – Pray Until Something Happens Concerning the value of persistent prayer, I don’t want to give the impression that if we just ask God for whatever we want he will eventually give it to us. That would be rewarding self-centered prayers. What I am saying is this: Jesus honors those who don’t give up in prayer. He longs to pour out on his children his faithfulness, love and goodness. And although we may not get the answer we are asking for, we will find over time that he changes us in the process. I’ll never forget sitting in the living room of my future in-laws in Dallas thirty-four years ago. We were listening to an Irish preacher named Jim McGuiggan teach on prayer that Sunday afternoon. The only line I remember from his message is this: “God doesn’t want to just change our circumstances. God wants to change us!” I know of a man who was frustrated with his marriage for several agonizing years. He and his wife are both strong believers, but the selfishness and stubbornness in this man’s wife inflicted deep pain on his heart. He tried lecturing her; that didn’t work. And so for years he kept pleading with the Lord to transform his wife and their marriage. In time, the ship moved. The breakthrough came. He finally saw some changes in his wife’s heart, and today their marriage is much healthier. But the Lord did more than answer this man’s prayer for a changed wife. The Lord changed him. He’s become more in love with Jesus and passionate about him than he ever has. “God doesn’t want to just change our circumstances. He wants to change us.” For the last three years, my wife and I have faced an obstacle concerning her health that has seemed insurmountable. We’ve gone to some of the best doctors and have tried a great number of medications. Innumerable people have prayed over Susan. She’s read a mountain of books on healing, but still no major breakthrough. We struggle with why God has allowed her to suffer for so long. And yet we keep pushing the ship, pleading with Jesus for a breakthrough -- and asking him to teach and change us in the midst of this battle. What has the Lord done in my life during the heat of this battle? He’s taught me the virtue of waiting on him in prayer. Patient, persevering prayer. Something I’ve lacked in spades. At the front end of my wife’s illness, I recall a conversation with the men in our Tuesday prayer group. As we went around the circle asking for prayer, I said, “Please pray that God will heal Susan quickly.” One of the men paused for a moment and then made a statement that at first made me angry. “Jim,” he said, “Susan may take a lot longer to heal than you realize. Just be patient with her.” Ouch. I hated to hear those words. For I am an impatient man. I wanted my wife to quickly leap over this medical hurdle and get back to her normal self. God showed us he had other plans. In time it was clear that my friend in the prayer group was spot on. Susan has not healed quickly. We’re seeing signs of improvement, but they’re much slower than we had anticipated and prayed for. Therefore, we continue to prayerfully wait on the Lord to bring her to recovery. Mark Batterson nailed it when it comes to waiting patiently in prayer: We live in a quick-fix, real-time culture. We don’t just want to have our cake and eat it too; we want the instant brand. We want to reap the second after we sow, but this isn’t the way it works with dreaming big and praying hard. We need the patience of the planter. We need the foresight of the farmer. We need the mind of the sower. This author describes me so well -- a man caught up in the quick-fix world. “Lord, I want it now.” He has shown us another way. The long road of patient, persevering prayer.