The Prayer that is Persistent

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 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. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:1-8).

Jesus followed up His discourse about the imminence of His return to initiate the days of the Son of Man on earth, the establishment of God’s millennial Kingdom, with an exhortation about justice and prayer. With a parable, He warned His disciples that true justice was not to be found in an earth-bound “unrighteous judge”.  He also exhorted them to pray like a tenacious “widow… who kept coming”. Do you ever feel like no one listens to or understands you? Where do you go when you have been unjustly hurt or offended? Is your faith nurtured and growing by an increasing awareness of and connection to the presence of Jesus through prayer? Today Jesus helps us to learn and practice the prayer that is persistent.

The prayer that is persistent is established in Faith. “Will not God give justice to His elect?” Persistent prayer resists the world and responds to the persistent goodness and pursuit of God toward His elect. As diligent disciples experience the rejection and wrath of this rebellious and resistant world, we are often tempted to seek justice from people and institutions of the world. But in the search for true justice our faith in the only holy and righteous judge grows stronger… “Mankind will say, ‘Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth’” (Psalm 58:11), and we discover, experience, and reflect the perfect and lasting justice of God to a very needy world… “For the LORD loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever” (Psalm 37:28).

The prayer that is persistent is exercised often. "Always to pray" means living life in His presence… “Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (Psalm 105:4). "Not lose heart" means protecting our heart by withdrawing from life's distractions to devote our heart to Christ in a regular sacred place of meeting… “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Unceasing prayer is one sure way to keep our hearts in the center of God’s will… “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

The prayer that is persistent is evidence of salvation. Awareness of our desperate need to "cry to Him day and night" is clear confirmation that we are not of this world, that there has been a change in our heart wrought by the grace of God. The Lord does not require our unrelenting cries in order to act in response to our need... “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). It is we who need a deep, growing awareness of our desperate reliance upon Him to keep our focus above and beyond the limits of this temporal world... “We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). Such Holy Spirit inspired desperation compels us to live and walk differently in the midst of a fallen and corrupt world... “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Those who learn to live and walk in maturing and persistent faith will experience the amazing blessing of being an affirmative answer to our precious Savior's compelling question... "will He (I) find faith on the earth?"

As we grow up into Christ, we become a prominent reflection of faith to a faithless world as we pray…

The Prayer that is Persistent.