6.1 Wala ka sa Lolo ko. He did not give up, he was no quitter, that is, the Lord did not quit on him.
13 October 2020
Updating 29 August 2020 blog.
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29 August 2020
William Holman Hunt's The Importunate Neighbour (1895) depicts the beginning of the parable.
William Holman Hunt • Public domain
The Parable of the friend at night demonstrates the need to pray without giving up.
Real men pray. They don't quit.
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. (Luke 18:1)
That's from The Parable of the Persistent Widow.
I did not quit. Simply because the Lord did not quit on me.
The Lord has chastened me severely,
but he has not given me over to death. (Psalm 118:18)
One day, my children's children will say, wala ka sa Lolo ko, he was no quitter. He went against the odds, the odds were against him, what mattered, and will always matter, is that the love of God is with him.
If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31).
One more thing. My children's children won't be my children's children, if I quit on my first love, that's my first girlfriend.
Yes, my former girlfriend will attest to that.
Torpe. That's me. I was barely five feet when I graduated high school while my siblings were of bigger frame; my two older brothers were varsity players, basketball and volleyball, respectively.
I had this inferiority complex, sweaty palms, and timidity when it comes to girls.
Alas, when I meet my former girlfriend, I had grown up to about five feet seven inches tall. I say, former girlfriend, because, she is the wife of my youth.
Busted. Ako yun. You will hear in the video that, pinagtataguan ako ni Marlou when I come to their house. Hide and seek, we were playing hide and seek.
Again, If God is for us, who can be against us?
I came back, with even greater vigor. Well said, the fruit of perseverance is sweet.
Nothing beats God's timing. That day I held her hand, my heart pounding, she did not say a word. That day was made in heaven.
In short, had I been a quitter with my first love, my children's children won't be my children's children.
I will be turning sixty next month, for all the goodness of the Lord in my life, I will not give up, I will be no quitter, with my First Love, that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
I will always pray and not give up. Amen.
Same for you. Let's not quit.
Always pray and not give up. (Luke 18:1)
Luke 18
The Parable of the Persistent Widow
1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.
3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’”
Luke 18
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think,
5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.
7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?”
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Now, more on prayer.
“Prayer and Christian life are inseparable.
Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God.
“[Prayer] is commonly held to be a conversation. In a conversation there are always an ‘I’ and a ‘thou’ or ‘you.’ In this case the ‘Thou’ is with a capital ‘T’.
If at first the ‘I’ seems to be the most important element in prayer, prayer teaches that the situation is actually different. The ‘Thou’ is more important, because our prayer begins with God .…
“In prayer, then, the true protagonist is God. The protagonist is Christ, who constantly frees creation from slavery to corruption and leads it toward liberty, for the glory of the children of God.
The protagonist is the Holy Spirit, who ‘comes to the aid of our weakness.’ We begin to pray, believing that it is our own initiative that compels us to do so. Instead, we learn that it is always God’s initiative within us.
This initiative restores in us our true humanity; it restores in us our unique dignity.””
Truth is, we do not know what we ought to pray for.
Romans 8
Life Through the Spirit
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
May you have been blessed.
Let's continue to pray for our country, Lord heal our land. Amen.
2 Chronicles 7
14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
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