The Believer’s Prayer Life 3

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Luke 18:1 NIV

In the past two days we have been looking at the subject of the believer’s life of prayer. In the first part, we considered the necessity of having fixed time of prayer without neglecting the counsel of the scriptures to pray always. Next, we examined the significance of praying with our bibles open or praying in accordance with the will of God. 

In Luke 18, Jesus introduced another dynamic to prayer using a parable of a persistent widow. According to Luke: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary” (Luke 18:2-3). 

First, look at the credentials of this judge; he neither feared God, nor respected man. How can you plead your case with a man having such a profile? You can’t say I beg you in the name of God (he didn’t fear God); you can’t even say ‘please sir help me, my children are too young’(he didn’t care about men). Getting anything from this man was practically impossible, yet the bible tells us that “…there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary” (Luke 18:3).

Knowing the impossible nature of the circumstance ahead of her, we would have expected this widow to pack her bag, and seek help elsewhere but instead she remained persistent. “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” (Luke 18:4-5). Her persistence, though logically speaking, sounded unreasonable, eventually produced results. 

So, why was Jesus telling us this story? It was to teach us the need for faith and persistence in prayer. In fact, he concluded the parable by asking “…However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). It is not enough to pray and give when we don’t see the answer, No! Infact, Jesus said “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” (John 16:24 NIV)

Have you given up on asking for anything or you are already getting tired and planning to stop? Now is the time to begin again, not a time to stop!

PRAYER