Can You-Will You...Go back Seven Times?
“Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand…And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.”~1 Kgs. 18:42-45
What a wise servant Elijah’s was in obeying his master, and in having a persistent spirit. How much wiser are those of us who call Jesus our Master.
Our Lord gave His followers two examples in Luke’s gospel, (chapter eleven and eighteen) of perseverance in the Christian life. That is, having doggedness in going after the things one needs! You’ll remember Jesus Himself went back three times.
In the first story He tells of a servant's importunity. Meaning, being unrelenting, consistent.
In the second He uses the expression continual coming. There was no giving in or giving up in either case. They had, what I like to call, “A Jacob Spirit." You know, “And he [the angel] said, Let me go…”And he [Jacob] said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.”
C. S. Lewis said it like this, “Our desires are not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”