Pray Always
Luke 18:1-8 1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
So, is this parable about justice, or is it about being persistent in prayer? Or, perhaps it refers to the faithfulness of God.
Since the judge is considered unjust, we understand that the parable is not teaching about justice. Otherwise, the woman’s plea for justice would have been answered the first time.
Instead, Jesus is trying to teach the importance of prayer. I have often said we should approach God as a first response, not as a last resort. The woman in this parable did not approach the judge multiple times because she believed he had not heard her. Quite the contrary. She knew her pleas were heard, but because they were not acted upon the woman was relentless in her requests.
God always answer our prayers, just not in the way we expect. Sometimes the answer is “yes”, at other times “no”, and still at other times “not now”. When we pray often we can develop the ability to discern the difference.
Finally, persistent prayer does not reflect unbelief. Rather, it is an act of faith as we take our requests before God’s throne as many times as needed. And when we end our prayers with “in Jesus’ name”, we are saying that we are asking in agreement with Jesus, according to His will,
May we learn to be persistent in prayer, faithful in our beliefs, and careful to praise God in all situations, at all times.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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