When we think of being relentless, we usually think of an athlete, a soldier, or a man of unwavering resolve. But Jeremiah was a soft-spoken man who just wouldn't quit.
At exactly 12 noon, on September 23, 1857, this tall, soft-spoken man climbed the dusty stairs to the third floor of an old church building in the heart of Manhattan. He sat down as was his habit and began to pray. Waiting for others he had invited to join him. No one arrived. But, he prayed.
Earlier that year, on July 1, he had signed on with a small failing church in lower New York City to be a minister of outreach. The elders of the Old Dutch North Church had tried everything to refire the dwindling, 88-year-old church. Finally, they decided to hire someone who would meet with people in the area and invite them to church.
Jeremiah had been doing that for years, and now it was his profession.
Jeremiah made flyers and invited dozens of men to weekly prayer at noon. That day, Sept. 23, he waited 10 minutes, then 15 ... finally, at about 12:30, six men walked up the stairs and joined him to pray for 30 minutes. The following week, 20 men joined him. The following, it was 40. And then the economy of the nation collapsed.
Hundreds of men began to meet Jeremiah for prayer. Then it became daily prayer.
The prayer meetings swept the nation and across to Europe and beyond. Within a year, thousands of men were saved. Over the next 37 years, Jeremiah never wavered.
He was there every day at noon. He would walk among the stores and pray for businesses, and for ill people. He never quit.
It's estimated that in his lifetime, over one million people came to Christ because of those prayer meetings that swept across the nations. It was prayer that saved millions and saved a nation.
Jeremiah was relentless.
Relentless men change the world. That's who we are. That's the spirit and lean of CMN. We will not quit.
The men on the ground right now in Uganda are working hard. Thousands of CMN leaders will do the hard work of pulling together men's groups across the nations.
Step after step, prayer after prayer, call after call, text after text, coffee after coffee ... relentless in the pursuit of the hearts of men.
