Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 72:18-19
Praise be to You, Lord our God;
For You alone do marvelous deeds.
Praise be to Your glorious name forever;
For the whole earth is filled with Your glory.
Help me to perceive Your works and to see Your glory today!
Amen.
Reading
Don’t you just love a parable where the Gospel writer tells you the main point before he even records the actual parable Jesus told? That’s the case in Luke 18:1 where Luke records,
“Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
The original Greek word for “not giving up” expressed a sense of inner weariness. It’s that familiar feeling of being disheartened or discouraged to the point of just not having the energy to keep going. How many of us could claim never to have felt that way during a season of apparently unanswered prayer? Very few, if any, I suspect!
By telling this parable of contrast, Jesus makes the point that the Heavenly Father is nothing like the unjust judge. He is quite the opposite. He loves us, He cares for us and He has our highest best interests at heart. Jesus’ point is that if even an unjust judge will eventually respond to an old widow about whom he couldn’t care less, how much more will God respond to the persistent prayers of His beloved children!
Please also notice the fact that Jesus ends by emphasizing “faith” in v.8. In a truly biblical understanding, “faith” is all about trust! This parable – and especially v.8 – is an invitation/command to keep trusting the love of God our heavenly Father and therefore to continue bringing our pleas for justice before Him, regardless of how long He seems to be taking to answer us.
That word “justice” is also an important key to a proper understanding of this parable. Both the widow and God’s “chosen ones” were crying out for “justice”. In Biblical terms, “justice” is when everything is in perfect balance and relationship because it is perfectly in line with God’s will. This emphasis on justice as the subject of our prayers shows us that Jesus was not telling us to keep nagging God for our selfish desires, but to stay persistent in prayer for “His will to be done!”
So if we put all of that together we can say with confidence that we are called to dedicate ourselves to pray daily for God’s perfect will to be done on earth as it is in heaven … and to continue trusting God to do so, even when there seems to be no apparent change in the state of affairs.
Let’s get praying!
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn this declaration over and over in your mind. Keep it in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will trust in God and His love for me.
- I will pray persistently for God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done.
- I will not allow apparent delays to demotivate me.
Holy Spirit, grow my perception of the Father’s love; grow my trust in the Father’s care; and empower my prayers for His Kingdom to come. Amen.
Dave's Diary 