Warren Buffett. ‘The Sage of Omaha’. The Second richest man in the world. Self made multi billionaire. Investment expert.

Peyton Manning. SuperBowl winner and MVP. One of the best quarterbacks ever. Had a ‘monkey’ on his back because he’d never won a major championship. Until February 2007.

What do these two people and many, many others like them have in common?

They are ‘successful’.

There was a basketball player whose career statistics read something like this: field goal percentage: 0.497. 3Pt field goal percentage: 0.327. Number of shots missed: Over 9000. Number of games lost: over 300. Number of times he’d been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed: 26.

Yes, this guy missed more shots than he hit. He lost over 300 games, of which 26 were essentially his fault. Yet he was paid millions of dollars every year to keep playing.

He got paid millions of dollars, year after year and yet he missed more shots than he hit? How does that work?

The answer is simple, and he summed it up in one statement: “I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Just like Warren Buffett and Peyton Manning, he knew the secret to great success: Keep trying.

If only we could grasp that secret and put it into practice in our Christian walk.

Have you ever prayed for someone’s healing and had that prayer answered? If you have, it probably spurred you on to pray for someone else.

Have you ever prayed for someone to be healed and had that prayer NOT answered? If so, were you so willing to pray for the next person?

So often, things don’t go the way we want or expect them to and we give up even though the bible doesn’t suggest that every prayer we pray will be answered instantly, or even in the way we expect it to.

The bible does tell us to be persistent though and to ‘press on’, to hold on to faith and to trust God.

If only we could put into practice the same determination and single mindedness as the people mentioned above. How much different would your church, your neighborhood, your city, your country, the whole world be if you and I persisted in our faith and didn’t give up at the first hurdle.

Make a difference in the world today – don’t give up on God, because He surely won’t give up on you.

Oh, and the name of that basketball player – Michael Jordan.