Persistent Prayer

Persistent Prayer
By Shirley Mitchell

"Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: 'In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' " And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?' "
Luke 18:1-8

Through the parable of the persistent widow, Jesus taught His disciples the necessity of praying always and never giving up. He knew that we are prone to wander and prone to walk by sight, not by faith. Therefore, He exhorted His disciples to pray tenaciously.

The persistent widow prayed always and with determination. She kept coming to the uncaring judge and pleading with him to grant her justice. The Greek word for "give up" is ekkakeo. It means "to be utterly spiritless, to be wearied out, exhausted...to turn out to be a coward, to lose one's courage, to be fainthearted, to faint or despond in view of trial, difficulty...to be remiss or slothful in duty." Its antonyms are "to take courage, to speak boldly, to dare, to be very bold, to flourish again, to revive."

This widow was courageous and bold. She did not abandon her duty, nor did she choose to be spiritless. She dared to approach the only one who could avenge her adversary. She refused to lose heart. She refused to give in to the pain in her heart. The widow had the rawest emotion over this situation. She was deeply emotional over it. Even though Scripture does not record her anguish, we know that a person does not continue day after day to plead for justice unless she is deeply passionate about it. Don't minimize how hard this was for her. Still she did not give up. She may not have caused it, but she had to deal with it. Still she did not give up. Her situation may have gotten harder before it got better. Still she did not give up. When our hearts are in so much pain, we can either release it to emotional numbness, or we can release it to God. What God is saying is that even if we try to deaden the pain and say we do not care, He still cares. He still cares about our wound. He wants us to deal with it - with Him.

God and the judge are similar because both have the authority and the ability. However, God is different from the judge because He delights in granting justice to His chosen ones. He greatly cares about our requests. Jesus was saying that God was not unjust and would not treat believers in this manner. His point for comparison was that if an evil man can be forced to deal rightly by the persistence of the widow, how much more would our loving and caring Father deal rightly with our requests. The unjust judge did not care about people, nor did he care about God. He never saw his position as a champion to aid the people. He saw the widow as a nuisance and ignored her. However, the widow used her only power - persistent requests. It irritated the ungodly judge and wore him down. She never won his concern. He was only concerned with removing the annoyance.

Beloved, we need to know that how we live our lives is either sowing to the Spirit or sowing to the world or our flesh. If you and I are sowing in a manner that pleases the Spirit, then we will reap from the Spirit. When we sow to the Spirit, we will reap from the Spirit. A spiritual harvest will come. Our sowing may be pure-hearted, but it may not be fun. As Psalm 126:5 says, "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy." We may sow in tears, but we will reap with songs of joy! For the times that we have cried so much and have no appetite, we will reap. For the times when the only thing we have eaten is the salt of our tears that left our faces chaffed, we will reap. If you and I will cling to Him and not dishonor His name, then He is bound by His name to reap the harvest.

Sometimes God has a yes to our request but it's in the future. In our instantaneous culture, we can't imagine waiting for something months, years, or even decades. We abuse our persistent prayer command. We stomp our feet and demand it now. Sometimes God gives us what we asked. He turns us over to our own desires. He says, "Child, you want this more than you want intimacy with Me and my presence. So have at it." Since we know that we could be asking for something that is not in God's will or not in His timing, causes some of us to shrink back and drop the request. We want to avoid the road of overindulgence that breeds sin so much that we don't take the path of greater intimacy. Actually, it should inspire us to pursue His will and to know His thoughts on the subject! God will speak over it - if we are diligent and patient to hear Him in his time.

At the beginning of my walk with God, I had this mentality, "I don't see how prayer works. It must work for others who are more godly than I am. It doesn't work for me. I am pouring my broken heart out to God, and I am not seeing any answers. He is not involved in my life." In reality, it was like I had called 911 and wondered why God wasn't responding with the promptness of an emergency ambulance. I had a "give-it-to-me-now" mentality. I also thought He would answer dramatically. I didn't know He would answer in tiny, gradual moves, nor did I realize the answer would involve changing me! Now, when I see how He has transformed my life and my mind in a short period of time relative to my lifespan, I say, "WOW! He sure does answer prayer - so quickly and foundationally strong!"

Many times He has not given me the answer I wanted (quick fix), but the answer that I needed. So when He does not give you and me what we wanted, then we have to know with every fiber of our being that it is because He sees the full picture of yesterday, today, tomorrow, and all eternity. If He doesn't answer us with a "yes," then we trust that His "later" or "no" is always the best plan. Remember, a greater yes has to come with an earlier no. God's "best" answer shines brighter in comparison to the "good" things that passed us by.

Pray with me: Oh, Father, I know that You are loving and good. I know that You care. I bring before You my deepest prayer request. (Tell Him now what it is). Don't be my magic genie and give me whatever I ask. Give me Your best. Give me something of kingdom priority and value. Give me the fortitude to keep asking and let me recognize Your voice when You answer. Don't let me choose the road of overindulgence. Teach me to choose intimacy and let me abide in Your presence. It's in the Name above of names, in Jesus' Name, Yeshua's Name, I pray. Amen.

Excerpt from the Jesus Lives Bible study

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