Keep On Keeping On
Walt Disney was turned down 302 times before he got financing for his dream of creating Disneyland.
Colonel Sanders went to more than 1,000 places trying to sell his chicken recipe before he found an interested buyer.
Thomas Edison tried almost 10,000 times before he succeeded in creating the electric light.
The original business plan for what has become Federal Express was given a failing grade on Fred Smith's college exam.
Sylvester Stallone was turned down a thousand times by agents and was down to $100 before he found a company that would produce Rocky.
Read the Biblical Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11.
This is history. The one ingredient that runs through all the above is persistence. These folk were committed to an idea...a goal. These people "kept on keeping on". They did not give up.
Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds, put it this way; "Nothing in this world will take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Genius will not. Education will not. Persistence and determination are paramount."
Now I want to be very careful when I apply this to our Christian faith. We are not SAVED by our persistence. We are not saved because we are determined. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We come to God only through what Jesus has done for us, rather than anything we have done. That is bottom line. That is foundational. Above and beyond that, everything in our Christian walk is because of Him, and Him alone.
But, I must say that once we have come to Christ and accepted Him as the Lord of our lives there is a day in and day out faithfulness to Christ that needs to take over. The Bible is full of statements that bear this out:
"Continue in the grace of God" Acts 13:43
"Continue in His kindness" Romans 11:22
"Continue to work out your salvation" Philippians 2:12
"Continue in your faith" Colossians 1:23
"Just as you received Christ, continue to live in Him" Colossians 2:6
"Continue in what you have learned" 2 Timothy 3:14
The Christian life is a life of relationship with God. It is not something that happens once and for all, and is over with. It is a continuing relationship with the God Who made us, Who loves us, and Who wants to live in and through us.
The joyful, transparent, and delightful Christians that I know are people who are persistent about the working out of their faith. There is nothing casual or lackadaisical about them. They are faithful and persistent in reading the Word, faithful and persistent in prayer, faithful and persistent in worship, faithful and persistent in doing good works.
The writer to the Hebrews has a great word for us: "Let us run with persistence the race that is marked out before us."
A number of years ago a group of us were on a day hike in the North Cascades. A Forest Ranger was along as a naturalist and resource person. Half way up the mountain, a number of the hikers got tired and sat down on a log. They said, "We'll wait here and meet you on the way down." The Ranger, looking out over the valley, said: "Where would we be today if Jesus had stopped half way up the mountain?"
Needless to say, everyone got off the log and hiked up that mountain; and were GLAD they did! Let us continue in the Faith! Let us keep on keeping on!
AMEN!
