Nov
11
2014
Persitent Pleas
Posted in Prayer 2 Comments
Gutter guards are causing the problem.
Gutter guards that my husband wanted to install on our gutters.
Gutter guards that I agreed to if it meant that he would no longer have to climb ladders.
I regretted my decision soon after I made it.
Cleaning out the gutters is a messy job.
It is my husband’s annual fall ritual.
He would remove the debris and allow it to fall on the walkway below.
Some debris would blow away as soon as it fell, the rest needed to be swept and discarded.
The debris was hindering the flow of rainwater through the gutters.
Without being able to flow through the gutter, the rainwater overflowed.
Overflowed into a sheet of water cascading down onto the walkway.
A beautiful sheet of water, with ripples and prisms of color.
The engineer husband of mine decided that covering the gutters was the answer.
He knew he could do the job himself.
He researched it, bought the materials and was ready to install.
You do know that we won’t be able to hang Christmas lights from the gutters any more.
My heart sank.
My husband no longer on a ladder.
No Christmas lights on the gutters.
My head and my heart were at war.
My head won.
The gutter guards were installed.
Last year would have been the last year that we hung Christmas lights from our gutters.
I was sad about that and decided to investigate other options.
I found small hooks that are able to go through the holes of the gutter guards.
Hooks that easily allow Christmas lights to be installed.
I sent the link to my husband.
He did not like the idea since our gutter guards are covered with a mesh screen.
Our oldest son was home for the weekend and we were talking about Christmas.
You know those gutter guards were the worse things we ever did.
This from the son that always said he would line his house with Christmas lights.
Isn’t there a way to still hang the lights, Dad?
My husband talked about when the decision was made.
The decision I agreed to and then regretted.
I guess I figured all along that I would find a solution.
A solution that would end the battle between my heart and my head.
I remembered that my husband’s problem with the hooks was the screen mesh.
Poking a hole through the screen compromises the effectiveness.
Spoken like a true engineer.
However, I do not have an engineer cell in my brain.
I am an out of the box thinker.
I am the creative one that is bound and determined to find a solution.
I was ready to come up with something innovative on my own.
I didn’t have to.
After a computer search, I found hooks that are small enough to go through the screen.
Hooks that were designed for people that have gutter guards with a screen mesh.
Hooks for people that want clean gutters AND Christmas lights.
People like me.
I sent my husband the link.
Maybe he would agree that this is the answer.
Maybe he is just tired of hearing my pleas to come up with a solution.
He answered my email in a few short words: OK, I just ordered some. Love you.
I smiled from ear to ear.
My children will be thrilled.
My engineer husband is probably less than convinced.
I know that this solution will work.
Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said, “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with a plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ ” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says, 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? I tell you, He will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:1-8)
The widow’s pleading finally got the judge to listen to her.
We plead to God.
We come to Him day in and day out.
We bring our requests to Him and lay them at His feet.
God the Father never gets annoyed at our constant plea.
When we come to Him in faith, we are heard.
Through His Son, Jesus, we are heard.
God the Father never tires of hearing the prayers of His children.
In our humanness, we get annoyed.
We tire of hearing the same thing over and over.
We may relent, even a bit unwillingly, just so we don’t have to hear it anymore.
I am so glad that God is not like that.
God the Father truly cares about the needs of His children.
God the Father delights in hearing the prayers of His children.
Prayer changes us as we lay our requests before the only One who can truly answer.
As we get closer to God, through Jesus, we begin to ask for those things that are in His will.
Persistence is a good thing.
Pounding the gates of heaven with a pure heart is never annoying to our Father.
He wants to hear our pleas.
He always answers, though not always in the way or the time we might like.
Be persistent.
Pray doggedly for those things on your heart.
Plead with tenacity.
God is listening and God will act.
You can count on it.
Thanks for reminding me that God never tires of our requests–especially if they are in His will. I continue to pray that all my family would know Jesus as their Savior.
Sue,
I know THAT prayer is close to the Father’s heart.
How grateful I am that He never gets tired of hearing His children.
Gina