If you knock long enough..... (RE-BLOG)

I came across several AWESOME blog posts from Amber (our daughter)'s pastor, Mark Batterson of National Community Church in Washington DC. Here is the first one.....

The theme of the Nebraska Pastor's Retreat was building a ministry that endures. Talked about Luke 11. One phrase from the New Living Translation really got in my spirit: if you knock long enough.
I think most of us never see our dreams become reality simply because we give up too soon. What if the Israelites had stopped marching around Jericho on the sixth day? What if Naaman had only dipped in the Jordan river six times? What if Elijah had stopped praying for rain on the sixth attempt? They would have forfeited the miracle. I love the underlying message of those stories: the miracle is only one lap, one dip, or one prayer away. We need to live with that kind of holy anticipation.
As I look back on my own life, the blessings of God are really the byproduct of asking, seeking, and knocking. If you knock long enough...
NCC broke all the church planting rules. We weren't 100 by the end of our first year. We weren't 200 by the end of our second year. According to the experts, we should have never broken those barriers. But if you knock long enough...
It took eight years to purchase 201 F Street, rezone the property, and construct the coffeehouse. Felt like forever. But if you knock long enough...
I tried to write a book for ten years. I have half a dozen half-finished manuscripts on my computer. I was frustrated beyond words. But if you knock long enough...
Try harder.
Try longer.
Don't give up.
Don't give in.
if you knock long enough...