Perseverance And Humility In Prayer

PERSEVERANCE IN PRAYER AND HUMILITY

Key Scripture: Luke 18:1-14

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always prapy 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 do not 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?”

To those who were confident in their own righteousness Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men- robbers, evildoers, adulterers- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven but beat his breast and said, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

As with all the parables that Jesus told, this is a story that can be true or hypothetical story that is also true. The purpose of this parable that Luke talks about in this chapter is to show that we ought to pray all the time and not lose heart. Why is this important? There could be a number of reasons and the first primary reason is that patience is a virtue that we as human beings need to develop. In our instant social media gratification driven society, we want resolutionsto our problems quickly. When the desire for such results is relayed, we get frustrated as well as discouraged, and the longer the delay takes, the greater our frustration and discouragement becomes. This can be even greater when what is desired in putting right whatever is wrong that has been suffered as is the case in this parable. We as the righteous desirwe for justice to be done.

Pro 21:15

When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous

But terror to evildoers.

There are several psalms that express the frustration of having justic e delayed. In Psalm 94 there is a petition that asks God to intervene and it asks the question of how long the wicked will rejoice, because the psalmist then describes the actions of the wicked before describing the character of God and the hope of His future relief of the righteous and punishment of the wicked. In Revelation 6 it describes the martyrs crying out to God during the first half of the tribulation period to avenge their blood on those who dwell on the earth. (Rev 6:10). Anybody who has suffered at the hands of the urghteous desire for justice to be done and there comes within us a frustration when such justice is delayed. That’s the situation that the widow finds herself in because she has been wronged and is now seeking justice to be done.

The Bible also says to us in numerous passages that we are not to seek our own vengeance.

Lev 19:18

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your own people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.

Pro 24:29

Do not say, “I’ll do to him as he has done to me.

I’ll pay that man back for what he did.

Rom 12:19

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, /i will repay,” says the LORD.

1. The Widow: The actions of the widow were righteous ,but she was in a vulnerable position and there were no other options available to her. The fact that she is the one revealing the case to the judge tells us that she has no male relatives to help her and in that sense she has no protector that could pressurise the judge to acts, if that was at all possible. Her ctions are thus seen as acts of desperation as she continually comes before the judge