Spring has sprung and with it has come birds of every kind building cozy little nests in which to lay their eggs. It is a beautiful scene to observe a mother bird looking everywhere for bits of hay, grass, paper, and other materials she can use to build her babies a home.

It is not so beautiful, however, when she decides to build her nest on the lamp beside your front door, which is exactly what has happened to us!

It all began a few weeks ago when we noticed a lovely lady robin had begun a nest right on top of our outdoor light. My husband immediately pulled off all her hard work and said to my kids, “this just isn’t the place for this. Hopefully she won’t try to build it again.”

Alas, mother robin could not be defeated. She built this nest time after time until finally I begged my husband, “Can’t we just let her build it there? She seems so adamant about it and we can just keep the light off for awhile.” He sighed in defeat and hopefully we will have a (very) front row seat to seeing some new little robins hatch in the next few weeks!

The Power of Perseverance

Watching mommy robin’s persistence got me thinking about a parable Jesus shared with his disciples in Luke 18 to illustrate the power of persistent prayer:

“And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Verses 1-8).

The God Who Longs to Answer Us

It is easy to try something once and give up on it if we have a bad experience. A new workout, a new food, a new hobby, a new book. We may give up because we are too impatient to wait for the results or take the time to learn to appreciate what it may offer us.

It’s also easy to apply that same impatience to our prayer lives. I’m not here to tell you that God will always answer your prayers the way that you want if you are just persistent enough. Keep asking God for wisdom as you seek Him, and He will surely give it to you (James 1:5). Let God’s Word and Spirit guide you as you pray and fill you with power to persevere.

You can be sure to count on this- when His children cry out to Him, He is sitting up and taking notice. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “…the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.”

Keep Asking, Seeking, and Knocking

Is there something or someone God has placed on your heart to pray for? Keep asking, seeking, and knocking. Don’t lose hope! Don’t give up! Keep praying!

Like the robin in our front yard, you may have built something dozens of times only to have it torn down; However, if you persist, one day you may find it standing strong and complete right before your eyes.