I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 21st of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Mathew 7:7-8:

”Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

I want to ask you a question this morning, have you given up? Have you given up asking? Have you given up seeking? Have you given up knocking? Please don’t do that. I looked up the Oxford dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word “persistence”. It means to continue doing something in spite of difficulty. Now, I want to tell you a little story. Many, many years ago, maybe 1993, I came back from preaching in Scotland. I had been there for three months, preaching with my oldest daughter, Lindy. When I got home, I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to take an A4 pad and a pencil and to write a book. I had no formal education and I started writing the book. When I’d finished writing the book, I published it myself because no one else would look at it.

I then took the book to a little bookstore in Pietermaritzburg, very close to us. I asked the owner if he would mind selling my book for me. He was reluctant. He said, “Local authors don’t do very well”. I persisted. Eventually, I think to get rid of me he said, ”Ok, give me one copy.” One copy that’s all, the last of the big spenders! He put that on the shelf and he said, ”I will phone you as soon as it gets sold.” I was so excited, I went home, told my family and we waited, and we waited, and we waited and we waited. After about three weeks I thought, “Why is he not phoning me?”

Now listen carefully to the crux of the matter. You see, if I hadn’t persisted nothing would have happened. Eventually, I put my pride in my pocket and I phoned the gentleman and I said, ”Did you sell the book?” He said, ”Angus, I sold it the next day but I lost your phone number and I couldn’t get hold of you.” If I hadn’t persisted, that book, “Faith like Potatoes”, would have never got onto the market. I can tell you it’s in 17 languages today, and a movie’s been made from it. Persistence - ask, seek and knock!

Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.