SHAMELESS AUDACITY

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. Luke 11:8 (NIV)

REFERENCE
Luke 11:5-10 (NIV)

This passage reinforces the fact that life will not necessarily give you what you deserve but what you demand from it. Even though they were friends, the person asking for bread in this parable did not get it based on friendship; but, because of his shameless audacity – refusing to leave his friend alone until he got the bread he ‘demanded’ for.

Life on earth is not a walk in the park, and unfair things happen to people who do not deserve it, all the time. A close look at your life’s journey and that of others you know, will point directly to this fact. However, to get what you deserve out of life, you have to consciously demand it out of life. You will hardly get anything out of life, by giving up after a few attempts and trials. You have to be audacious – bold in making your demands. Although the parable refers to prayers, it is applicable to other areas of life.

The King James Version of the bible translates ‘shameless audacity’ as ‘importunity,’ while in the New King James Version it is translated as ‘persistence.’ They all have the same meaning; which is, your ability to stay and finish the course in whatever you are doing, despite difficulties. Sometimes, things don’t happen at the time you anticipate they will and you can’t control the time when they will eventually happen, so you must learn to endure and not give up or give in to pressures.

It is possible that people made snide remarks at the infirm man who stayed at the pool of Bethesda for 38 years; maybe they told him he was a fool for staying there for so long; some might have told him to just give up and accept his fate, while others would have told him to call his relatives to take him home to die. But one thing this man had going for him was his shameless audacity. Each year he would try to be the first one to get into the pool when the water was stirred up, in order to get his healing, but he never made it. If this man had given up and accepted it as his fate to remain sick after 37 years of trying, he wouldn’t have met Jesus, and his story wouldn’t have changed (John 5:2-9). But he remained and kept hope alive.

Likewise, never fold your arms or accept it as your fate when you don’t get what you deserve out of life; demand it from life. For example, I Peter 2:24 reveals that, you were healed by the stripes of Jesus; yet, you can feel sickness in your body. Choose not to accept any persisting symptoms of sickness in your body as your fate after you have prayed; rather, keep on making the demand for your healing boldly and unashamedly. You must keep standing on the Word, believe that it has been done, and continually confess your healing until you see the manifestation regardless of what people make of your persistence.

You may not have what you think you should. Therefore, be shamelessly audacious in demanding what you deserve; that is one way to get what you deserve out of life. Life is a just paymaster; it often gives you what you bargain with it for – little or much, wellness or sickness, failure or success. It all depends on your importunity in demanding.

SCRIPTURE PHOTO

ADDITIONAL STUDY
Mathew 15:22–28, Luke 18:1-8, & James 5:11

PRAYER POINT
Ask for renewed strength to persist and remain resolute until you see manifestations in the things you deserve and demand out of life.