Staying Power

Staying Power

A Prayer for

March 2006

O Lord, we laugh at such bleak statements as: "It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others." Or "It’s always darkest just before it gets pitch dark." We laugh, but sometimes we suspect that those ugly statements contain more truth than we want to admit.

Lord, sometimes life is hard, and we are down and discouraged. Help us, O Lord; give us your staying power.

We are reminded of young Timothy of the Scriptures. He was sent to be the minister of the tumultuous church at Ephesus. This was a church torn into factions by strange doctrines, a church rife with immorality, a church that mocked Timothy’s timidity and youth. We can imagine that he was so down that he was ready to flee to the desert and become a hermit. But you reassured him, O lord, as you reassure us, and you commanded him to have staying power.

We read in I Timothy 1:3, “I urge you, as I did when I was on my way to Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach any different doctrine.” Timothy is urged, exhorted, commanded to remain in that discouraging situation and triumph over it. Even so, you command us to remain in sometimes difficult circumstances, to have staying power.

Many years ago, when I was a teenager, I remember watching a number of young people become sixteen years old, drop out of school, and go to work in the mill. They did not have staying power for school, but many of them developed staying power later in life. Many of them worked at one job in the mill all their lives. They married once. They went to one church. Their lives were often difficult. Work in a textile mill was hard. Sometimes making a marriage work is hard; sometimes remaining in a quarrelsome church is hard. But these folks generally stayed in their churches, made their marriages work and kept at their jobs. They were just living ordinary lives, but they had staying power in difficult circumstances.

We need such staying power, O Lord, for our circumstances. We too are just living ordinary lives, but sometimes our lives turn difficult. Give us, O Lord, the power to remain, the power to overcome, the power to transform

This we pray in the name of the Great Overcomer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

If you have questions or comments, email Tony Grant

Last Modified: 08/28/07