Tenacity is the capacity to hold on when others release their grip. Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the LORD is the iconic biblical image: "I will not let You go unless You bless me" (Genesis 32:26). The Syrophoenician woman pressed Christ three times until her daughter was delivered (Mark 7:24-30). The blind Bartimaeus cried out all the more when the crowd tried to silence him (Mark 10:47-48). The persistent widow wore down the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). Christ praised tenacity wherever He found it — often in the unlikely, always in the desperate. Biblical tenacity is not stubbornness for its own sake; it is the refusal to be moved from what God has promised, from the One who promised it, or from the course He has commanded.
TENAC'ITY, n. Quality of holding fast; the state of adhering firmly; firmness of hold.
TENAC'ITY, n. 1. The quality of holding fast; the state or quality of adhering firmly. 2. Firmness of hold; adhesiveness. 3. Figuratively, the disposition to hold a cause or an opinion with firmness; the disposition to retain what one has, or to keep one's course unbroken by opposition or difficulty.
Genesis 32:26 — "I will not let You go unless You bless me!"
Luke 18:1 — "He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart."
Mark 7:28 — "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."