Jesus told this story:
In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.' For awhile he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming. (Luke 18:2-5)
There are all kinds of Christian people working in this world today. What job position do we suppose the widow woman would have had in our world today? In all probability she'd be a highly paid professional Nag. In Loveland, Colorado, Denise Thomas' job was exactly that; her nickname was "nag," which is what her company specifically wanted her to do. Ms. Thomas was ITT's version of Sic Signa, a quality-improvement program pioneered by Motorola Inc. She went through six weeks of training to become one of 300 black belts in quality improvement. The upswing of her job was that she helped her company do more with less. She boosted productivity and profits by utilization of her nagging abilities and the fine tuning of her leadership/diplomacy skills.
Now, for those of us who are thinking right now that nagging can be added to the 'fruits of the Spirit' list by majority consensus, Jesus finishes the above story by saying:
Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will God delay long in helping them? I tell you, God will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? (Luke 18:6-7)
Jesus points out to us that if there is such power in nagging as to change a person who is so sunk in selfishness and who doesn't fear God nor respect other people, then how much more right will be done by our compassionate God in answer to our continued prayers. We don't necessarily need to be a black belt in quality improvement for Christ to receive answers from our God-directed requests. When we practice faith by praying calmly and persistently, faith that believes that God will furnish the right outcome, and faith that counts on God's controlling influence in the world today-- then we are disciples of God that do more with less.
Rev. Patricia E. Walker, AlphaChurch.org
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