Persistence in Prayer - Luke 18:1-8

Trinity 20 (17^th October 2010)

Theme: Persistence in Prayer - Luke 18:1-8

The theme of my sermon this morning is “Persistence in Prayer”.  Now, the idea of persistence and receiving something quickly does not seem to match.  If you can receive something quickly, then it does not require persistence.  But when you persist, that means you must endure long delay or even hardship.    

So how does God grant us our justice quickly? Jesus told a story about a judge. This is not a religious judge, but a civil judge who dealt with disputes involving property and financial transactions.  We are told that in this judge had no fear of God nor did he care what people think.  We might think that he was an impartial judge, but that was not to be the case.

The second person in the story was a widow.  In those days women in that society had a very low standing.  Women were very dependent on the men in their lives. Their husbands owned the property and earned the living. Their sons took care of them in old age. Women, for the most part, could own no land, and they had no opportunity to earn a secure income. It would be a terribly hard life for a widow if she had no sons. You can see why Jesus uses this picture of a widow – it is because she represents all those people who are oppressed and helpless.

This particular widow has an enemy who had taken away something valuable was taken from her: perhaps her home, or her farm, or her livestock, or even the life of a family member. She was demanding justice.  Now, if you or I were the widow - it would be so easy to give up.  Nobody cared about her.  She had no money, her husband was dead, and somebody was trying to kick her out of her property.  Then on top of it all, the crooked and unjust judge refused to do anything to help.

But this widow did not give up because she had not other people who could help her, except this judge.  She did not come to him a few times.  She kept pestering him everyday - day and night.  And finally, the judge came to a conclusion that his life was going to be completely disrupted by this woman if he did not do something about her problem.  Her obsessive behaviour was wearing him down.  So, for the sake of his own peace, he finally gave in and gave her what she wanted and deserved.

At the end of his story Jesus said, “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? ⁸I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly”.

The purpose of the parable is to show us that we should always pray and not give up. It is to help us reflect on our prayer life.  How long can we pray without stopping?  How long can we continue to speak with God concerning what is on our hearts?  Do we keep asking God for the same thing again and again, or do we feel like giving up on Him?

Jesus told this parable to the disciples because he knew that they would be tempted to quit praying.  When Jesus told them this parable he was also talking about his return and the coming Kingdom of God. He told them that these might be delayed and many bad things would happen as they waited for this event.  And this parable is also for us because we are also living in between the time of his ascension and the time of his second coming.  We are seeing many bad events, disasters, crises, and calamities happening now – and people who don’t believe in Jesus are making fun Christians.  It is so easy for us to give up on prayer. But we must keep on praying because:

First, it is because sometimes the answer to prayer will be delayed.  In other words, we should not stop praying just because we don’t see results quickly. Sometimes things cannot be done too fast.  If you want lose weight, you need to understand that you cannot lose it too fast because it is dangerous for you. When you understand that it will take time to achieve your goal, you will learn to persevere. It is the same with prayer. We need to understand that the answers or results we seek in prayer may be postponed or delayed.

When we have understood that we will not equate a delay in the answer to our prayers as a denial to answer our prayers.   I want to tell you that I have been praying silently for this church since I first began to understand the challenges we have in this church.   I want to tell you that I have been praying for unity in this Church for almost 3 years now.   I not only pray but preach it in one way or the other – Sunday after Sunday.  Sometimes I announced it in newsletter.  Sometimes I invited members to participate in the general cleaning in the church because as we work together, we chat, joke and laugh with one another – and that is how we come to know each other. I keep on reminding individual members, cell groups and fellowships that their existence is not merely for themselves – they belong to the body of Christ.  For almost 3 years now I have prayed about it, preached it and invited you all to get involved.

And last Thursday night I thought we have a breakthrough when I invited members of the Spiritual Taskforce Committee for a meeting and decide a theme for next year or the next two years.  We have many good suggestions and all of them wanted to see growth, unity, love, care, spirituality, hope, and Christlike lifestyle in the lives of members of this church. In the end we agreed to the theme, “Growing Together in the Body of Christ”.  Is that the beginning of an answer to our prayers?  I am sure we all have great longings; to see this church growing and moving forward, but we have not really come to a common understanding on how we must do it.  I did not show it, but I was truly overjoyed that night to realize that leaders are beginning to see the importance of growing (not alone but together); not in our small groups or fellowships (but within the Body of Christ); not just taking care of our own spiritual needs (but the needs of one another); and that we are not just content in saving our own souls (but the souls of many more people in our community).  I am sure I was not just the only person who prays for these: many of you are also praying the same thing.  My word to all of you is: keep it up and pray more.             

Second, perseverance in prayer is essential for success. By success, we mean success in accomplishing God’s purposes.  We need to understand that we have no other options, no hope, and no other recourse but to keep praying, no matter how long it takes to get an answer.  Jesus could have said that a certain woman in a certain town came before certain judge, with no other details, but he did not do that. Rather he specifically told us that this woman is a widow. This is significant because a widow in those days was without money to bribe the judge, without a husband to speak up for her, and without influence to pressure the judge to do what was right. In essence, she was in a helpless situation, without any other source or recourse.

Her only option was to keep asking and pestering the judge to help her.  She had no other alternatives. Now the widow in the story represents God’s people. We need to realize that we must, not should, but must persevere in prayer because we have no other source of hope or help. We have to keep praying and asking.

Third, we must keep on praying because we are special to God. Take note what Jesus said in verse 7: “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?”   When we realize that we are the “chosen ones” we know how special we are to God – then we are motivated to keep on praying.

Remember that the widow who asked for justice from the judge was a “nobody”. She was not special and not related to the judge at all.  Also in the parable the judge is described as unjust.  In verse 2, he described himself as a man who “neither feared God nor cared about man.”  And yet at the end of the story, the uncaring judge finally made a decision that justice would be done for the widow – simply because she persevered.

Jesus was not comparing God to an unjust judge or that he was comparing Christians to nobodies. Rather he is making a point by contrast. If a “nobody” can get an uncaring judge to answer her request by perseverance, then how much more can we expect God, our Righteous Judge, who does care to respond to his special people’s persistent requests?  After all we are special to God – we are his chosen ones; so we can expect an answer to our persistent prayers.  If persistency worked for the widow, then it must work for us.  When we understand this, it will change our whole prayer life.  We must keep on praying because we are already assured that we have a God who listens and responds to our request.  He is a wonderful, caring God who loves us and sees us special people, so we have reason to keep on praying.

God will not ignore his children who “cry out to him day and night.” He may delay answering our prayers for a time, but he will not “keep putting us off.”  Verse 8 tells us that the widow’s request in the parable was for what was right, and it was granted. Likewise when we come to God to pray for something that is right and done out of right motives, it will be done, no matter how much we have to persevere.

As I conclude my sermon, perhaps I need to answer one question that many of you may be asking: “Why does God delay in answering some of our prayers?”  Jesus does not directly address that question, but in verse 8 he did ask a question: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” This question is interesting because Jesus was not talking about faith; he was talking about persevering in prayer. And Jesus asked this question on faith in the context of prayer because persevering prayer and faith go hand in hand.  When God delays answering our prayers, it is not because he is reluctant to bless us, but I believe one reason he delays is to test and strengthen our faith.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “Prayer is request. The essence of a request, as distinct from a demand, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant them and sometimes refuse them...If God had granted all the silly prayers I’ve made in my life, where should I be now?”

What is God trying to say to us personally through this Gospel text?  If you are consumed with worry and anxiety – pray.   Are you considering quitting because there things that you are not happy with about the church?  We don’t solve problems by running away, by quitting.  The advice that we can get from this Gospel message is to keep on praying persistently.    Are you filled with doubt about prayer? Start praying positively and expect God to answer.  Every time you walk through a door that says PUSH, let it be a reminder for you to Pray Until Something Happens!