The example and teaching of Jesus lead us to keep on praying!
By Dean Collins
All of the Gospel writers indicate that Jesus spent time in prayer and wanted his followers to pray often. This is especially true with Luke’s Gospel. In fact, Luke’s Gospel begins and ends with a focus on prayer. In the first few verses of Luke, we find a whole multitude of people praying as Zechariah enters the temple to burn incense before the Lord. And in the very last verse of Luke’s Gospel after the ascension of Jesus to Heaven, the disciples return to Jerusalem where Luke tells us they were continually worshiping before the Lord.
Stories about persistence
In between Luke's opening and closing, we find 24 other occasions where Jesus is either praying or teaching about prayer. At the request of his disciples, Jesus taught them how to pray (Luke 11) and followed up with a parable about a friend who persisted to ask a friend to provide bread for unexpected company. He concludes his teaching in this passage with the promise of the Holy Spirit coming to us through prayer.
In Luke 18 we see a second lesson on the importance of being persistent with our prayers. Jesus told a story of a woman who simply would not give up in her request that a judge who neither feared God nor respected men would grant her justice. Consider that a minute. I think we should assume we are to be like the widow, persistent in bringing our needs to God. But the widow is bringing her request to an uncaring and unfair judge. Are we to consider God to be like this judge?
The woman simply would not give up!
In Luke 11 we find Jesus teaching us that God is significantly better than earthly fathers who try but don’t always know how to give good gifts. Our Father in Heaven knows our needs and gives only good gifts. But in the parable of Luke 18, the judge finally gives in to the persistent widow because she is both annoying to him and is beginning to make the judge look bad. Is the lesson, then, that we are to try and annoy God or make him look bad before a world that he loves so much?
Hardly. Jesus certainly is teaching that we should always pray and never lose heart. He said exactly that when he started the story. We are never to lose heart because God has already demonstrated his faithfulness to us over and over again. Our confidence in God is rooted in many fulfilled promises in history and in our own lives. We know God is faithful, and so we can confidently bring our requests to him.
Questions about God’s timing
Jesus concludes his story with a comment and with questions: “And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.” In the case of the widow and the unjust judge, the judge finally and speedily—or perhaps a better translation, suddenly—granted her justice.
How many times have you experienced God acting suddenly in a situation? You were discouraged, and suddenly the phone rang and a friend called with encouragement. You were without a job, and suddenly after numerous rejections, the job offer came. You were feeling awful and no medication was working, and suddenly the doctor made a slight change or alteration and you felt much better. The deal was all but dead, and suddenly the situation reversed. We know from Scripture and from many experiences in our lives that when God moves, many things can change suddenly.
It is hard to understand God’s timing when we are so very close to our situation. But if we consider that if we could just zoom out far enough and somehow imagine the lenses that God sees through, we’d likely have a very different understanding of “suddenly.” All things work out well in God’s timing.
Jesus’ last question in this lesson on prayer was this: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Jesus’ very statement that the Son of Man will come gives us assurance that he will. Jesus said this before his resurrection. Certainly, we can have confidence that the one who conquered death will fulfill his promise to return to earth to make all things right. The return of Jesus will bring the ultimate justice that Jesus was getting at in this little parable.
Confidently and relentlessly
It has been some 2,000 years since the resurrection, and while there are many examples of injustice on the earth, there are millions of examples that the world is still filled with people of faith. It is the people of faith who continue to pray daily for those in need. And it is the people of faith who not only pray with words but pray with hands and feet as God’s agents of mercy and love in his ever-expanding kingdom.
We can pray with confidence even as we pray relentlessly that Jesus would come soon to make all things right. As we pray for our needs to be met, we must also pray with humble and open hearts that God would use us to meet the needs of those around us.
Lord, we come again to you with our needs because you have encouraged us to do so. We know you are loving, kind, and merciful, and we ask that you suddenly reveal yourself in our situations where we need help. We place our complete trust in you today. We come with the persistence of the widow you told the story about, trusting that you are the righteous judge who will meet every need. We trust you, and we trust your timing now and forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your time with God’sWord
Luke 18:1-8; 11:1-5, 7-10, 12-13 ESV
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