A life of faith requires tenacity …

People respond differently when someone confronts them with a claim of, “It can’t be done.”

Some immediately recoil and give no further thought to trying again or trying harder. They give up because they’ve been told it can’t be done.

Others take such a claim as a challenge and use it to fuel their motivation in a heightened drivenness to prove what some insist can’t be done really can be if only a person is tenacious enough with their efforts.

Roger Bannister was a tenacious 25-year-old English medical student.

He had heard over and over from the experts that it was physically impossible for a human being to run a mile in under four minutes. Those experts argued the human bone structure was all wrong, the wind resistance was too great, our lung power was inadequate. There appeared to be a myriad reasons why it could not be done!

But on May 6, 1954, Bannister proved the doctors, the trainers, and the other athletes were all wrong. To the unbelief of everyone, Bannister broke the four-minute mile (pictured at right).

It could be done!

The writer of Hebrews uses the example of another race to encourage believers in Christ to exercise a tenacious faith …

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us,” Hebrews 12:1.

Christians will encounter many troubles and trials in life, all the while guarding against an enemy who tells them finishing the race God has set before them can’t be done. But Jesus taught differently. Our Lord taught the need for a tenacious faith! Let’s look at just two examples from the teachings of Jesus.

First, Jesus tells a parable about a tenacious widow …

“One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. ‘There was a judge in a certain city,’ he said, ‘who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’ Then the Lord said, ‘Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” Luke 18:1-8.

And Jesus emphasizes tenacity in Matthew 7:7-8 …

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

One reason why many who profess to be Christians fail to demonstrate the tenacity Jesus challenged us to is simply because being tenacious is hard work! But according to James, it’s worth all of the effort …

“God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him,” James 1:12.

Are you living a life of tenacious faith? Or have you bought the lie that finishing well the race God has given you just can’t be done?

Scotty