Luke 18:1-8 (The Message)
18 1-3 Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. He said, “There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: ‘My rights are being violated. Protect me!’
4-5 “He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, ‘I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won’t quit badgering me, I’d better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I’m going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.’”
6-8 Then the Master said, “Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t he stick up for them? I assure you, he will. He will not drag his feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?”
This parable is not about God and how God answers prayer. It is about us and how we pray. It is not about God and what God will do for us if we beg him long and hard enough; it is about us and what we can do to not lose heart, when all around us goes smash.
We can pray! And keep on praying until something good happens! And it will!
It may not be a healing: it may be the strength and faith to match the burden.
It may not be a solution to a problem, solving it for us; it may be the strength, insight and determination to solve the problem ourselves.
It may not be a bolt of lighting, like Martin Luther; but it may be a gradual awareness of a pull and tug towards God’s will for our lives which will not stop until we go with it.
It takes persistent faith to pray persistently . Faith which will not give up, give in, or throw in the towel no matter how impossible things seem to be.
The faith which is able to hang in there, persisting in God’s goodness, justice, fairness, love, mercy and kindness even when there seems to be no evidence that God even exists!
As it was for Elie Wiesel and many other Jews in Nazi Germany. He writes:
“There were many periods in our past when we had every right in the world to turn to God and say, ‘Enough. Since You seem to approve of all these persecutions, all these outrages, have it Your way: let Your world go on without Jews. Either You are our partner in history, or You are not. If you are, do Your share; if You are not, we consider ourselves free of past commitments. Since You choose to break the Covenant, so be it.”
“And yet, and yet...We went on believing, hoping, invoking His name...We did not give up on Him...For this is the essence of being Jewish; never to give up--never to yield to despair.” A Jew Today, p. 164
This is also the essence of being a Christian! To never give up no matter how bad it gets. To persistently confess with the unknown person in a cellar in Cologne during the bombing of WW II:
“I believe in the Sun even
when it is not shining;
I believe in love even
when I feel it not,
I believe in God even
when He is silent.”
Unknown
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, I believe, help me to never not believe in Your
love, or despair over what seems too much to endure.”
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