BELIEVE AND PRAY!
Believe and pray! This may sound backwards. Should we not pray believing that God will answer our prayers? Yes, but this simple little exercise of semantics puts the foundation of faith before the act of prayer. Many of us pray but few of us believe that our prayers will be answered. In some cases we leave our time of prayer not having asked anything of God at all. I know I have been conscious of this myself.
If we believe God we know that we can ask him for anything in prayer. That is a better platform for praying than to gamble with the uncertainty of skeptical prayer. Part of our skepticism comes from what we understand the answer to our prayers to be.
A pastor had a five year old daughter. This little girl noticed that every time her dad stood behind the pulpit and was getting ready to preach he would bow his head for a moment before he began his sermon. The very attentive little girl watched her dad do this each Sunday.
One day after the service the little girl went to her dad and asked him, “Why do you bow your head right before you preach your sermon?”
“Well honey,” the preacher answered, “I’m asking the Lord to help me preach a good sermon.”
The little girl looked up at her father and asked, “Then how come he doesn’t do it?”
Now that’s a matter of opinion. The preacher, God bless him, was persistent in praying every Sunday for an effective sermon. What we don’t know is whether he believed God would answer him or if he prayed out of desperation because he only finished his sermon at 8:30 this morning.
Jesus teaches us once again about prayer in the parable of the persistent widow. It is a story that encourages believers to seek God even when he seems far away and the answer we seek unattainable. Keep praying, Jesus says, and he tells us why persistence is important in prayer.
1. The Parable on Persistent Prayer
Couched in the context of the coming of the Kingdom of God, Jesus makes a link between faithful believers and prayer. We read, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (v. 1).
There is more to that phrase “not give up” than we see. We could add “not grow weary” or “lose heart,” but the phrase means more like “don’t be filled with bad thoughts.” Always pray and don’t let the bad thoughts overwhelm you. Bad thoughts undoubtedly are filled with fear and fear paralyzes us all. “Here a simple piety expressed in trusting prayer is commanded as a simple solution to the fear that robs the believer of his tranquility and the will to endure” (K. Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes).
The widow in Jesus’ story is dealing with a corrupt judge. In fact, Jesus says, “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men” (v. 2). This judge may have purchased his seat as the municipal justice. He will have been a man of some wealth who catered to those who could afford his services. It was well known that to gain an audience with the judge you could bribe his assistants to speed the hearing of your case.
This man did not fear God nor did he care what men thought of him. Again we must read deeper and find that this judge, as the story indicates, has no shame. He cannot be persuaded by eloquent speech or by the reprimand of the moral authority. He is without conscience. Money moves him and that is all. Money moves him and the widow has none.
Yet the widow is tenacious. “Grant me justice against my adversary,” she cries from outside the tent where cases are heard. She can’t come nearer because she can’t bribe anyone to let her in. She yells from afar, meets him in the market, finds him at home, and continually pleads for justice.
We know three things in this story: 1) the widow is in the right and is being denied justice; 2) for some reason the judge doesn’t want to serve her, perhaps because she has not paid a bribe; and 3) the judge prefers her adversary, perhaps because he has paid a bribe.
Persistence pays off. This is the main thrust of the story. We find that it worked for the widow: “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!’” (vv. 4-5).
The widow peppered the judge with petitions until it was just too tiring for him to refuse. He wasn’t shamed or embarrassed by this lady. It was solely the persistent nature of her pleading that got him to relent.
In the practice of prayer the Bible teaches us to be persistent. We have many examples of this throughout the Word of God. David, the great prayer warrior of the Psalms, testifies that he prayed continually to God: “But I call to God, and the LORD saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice” (Ps. 55:16-17). Our Lord Jesus in the Garden the night before his execution prayed persistently “Father take this cup from me.” And Paul prayed three times for God to take away his thorn in the flesh. Persistence in prayer is taught and it is expected and it is rewarded.
2. Contrasting the Judge with God
a) The Judge doesn’t represent God – Something must be said about this in regards to Jesus’ teaching. Over the years some people have gotten the impression that the judge symbolizes God and that God must be pestered to get a response.
We know from the passage itself that the judge does not represent God. “And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says…” (v. 6). God is just and Jesus is making a stark contrast for us. If this woman’s needs are met, how much more the needs of the pious who pray not to a harsh judge but to a loving heavenly Father. When we are gripped with fear or anxiety we are challenged to pray and to pray continually in the face of these discouragements with the confidence that God will act in his best interests and for our good.
The judge then, is the exact opposite of our heavenly Father. Jesus wants believers to know that when we pray persistently God will not react like the judge, to get us off his back, but as One who enjoys the communication of his kids.
b) God hears our prayers - Jesus makes this contrast clear when he said, “…will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?” (v. 7). These are rhetorical questions that can only be answered “yes” and “no” respectively.
Do we believe God hears us when we pray? Are there too many days and nights where it seems your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling? It may “feel” like God isn’t listening but we have this promise in Scripture: “This is the assurance we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 Jn 5:14). The ever-present question is how we can pray according to his will. This too is answered with persistent prayer and studying the Bible.
c) God answers our prayers – Part of understanding God’s will involves understanding his character. We can pray for justice because God is a God who loves justice. Jesus said, “I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly…” (v. 8a). Here again is the assurance we have in prayer: “And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 Jn 5:15). We must expect God to answer – if you doubt you will get an answer, you probably won’t. That’s what James tells us in ch. 1 of his letter: ask God, believe and don’t doubt because if you doubt you are like a wave blown here and there.
3. Faith’s Relationship With Prayer
a) Is there faith in our praying? – On the subject of believers praying persistently, Jesus concludes with this question: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (v. 8b). We cannot escape the implication of this question: the person who prays continually is a person of faith.
This is also the question we began with and that greatly affects our participation in Pray 21. We want to partner with the youth in our church and pray together. Ingrained in this exercise in prayer is the hope that our youth will see that we older folks believe in the God who answers prayer. It is really an exercise in discipleship and passing on our faith. Mind you, these youth can also teach us something about faith and we certainly will learn together. Will they see faith in our prayers?
At the age of 16 I had decided based on a strong calling from God to pursue becoming a pastor. When I shared this with my youth leaders I received some discouraging comments. One leader tried to convince me that pastoring was too hard. Another argued that there were other jobs I could use my voice for. My pastor spoke of the hardships and asked “Why” questions which are judgment questions. No one, not one adult I shared my dream with, sat down and said let’s pray about that dream.
That is something that shows faith in our praying. “I don’t know the answers so let’s pray.” That’s what our teenagers and youth need, not someone saying “no”, but someone who says “That’s a great dream, let’s pray about it.”
Billy Graham said, “Heaven is full of answers to prayers for which no one ever bothered to ask.” Have faith in the God of the dream; let’s ask God to bring the dream to completion. God’s answer is ready; it’s just waiting for our personal and persistent request.
b) What do you want? – We have no idea how bold we can be in asking God for a dream or for the fulfillment of our dreams. There is a story in Matthew 20: 29ff where two blind men cry out to Jesus saying “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” In v. 32 we read, “Jesus stopped and called them. ‘What do you want me to do for you?’” It was rather obvious what they wanted. Why did Jesus ask them this question? Because he wanted them to ask, to boldly make their request.
This week Luciano Pavarotti died. It was said that as a young boy he wanted to be a soccer player but his mother forced him to become a teacher. As an adult he taught for two years. Then one night he was serving as an understudy for an opera singer at the local theater when the star up and quit. He stepped into the role and a legend was born. Not a soccer legend but a singing legend.
You can ask God for your dream but you may find he has an even better dream for you. It begins with asking. God may have something better for you. Ruth Graham said, “If God answered every prayer of mine, I would have married the wrong man seven times!”
c) Do you believe Jesus is able to do it? – In a similar story, another two blind men call out to Jesus to be healed. This time Jesus asked a different question: “Do you believe I am able to do this?” (Mt. 9:28). In asking “what do you want?” I am asking you to consider what your dream is and to share it with your prayer partner and with God. What do you want God to do for you and in you and through you? With this question “Do you believe Jesus is able to do it?” I am asking “How big is your God?” and “Is he big enough for your dream?” If you find that you lack faith in God to fulfill your dream, tell him that too. As our young people and adults share these requests I anticipate a great divide being narrowed; we will grow together as young folks and older folks to understand that we serve the same God.
Someone said, “Prayer is a request. The essence of request, as distinct from 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 granted all the silly prayers I’ve made in my life, where would I be now?” (C. S. Lewis).
We might object to calling our prayers “silly” but the truth behind this statement is that God even hears our silly prayers and knows how to answer them.
Challenge Pray 21:
As we begin this 21 day partnership of prayer between our youth and our adults, let us consider the foundation of prayer: Believing. We need to believe:
- That prayer conquers fear, anxiety and worry.
- That persistent prayer is appropriate for godly people. God even teaches us through times of silence to keep seeking him.
- That God is not an unjust judge but loves to hear his children pray to him.
- That God will reveal things to us about ourselves and our dreams when we pray.
- That by joining hands with our youth today and for the next 21 days, committing to pray and listen to each other, we will better be able to act upon what God reveals to us.
It is our joy to discover what God has for us. Who knows what we have been missing in our lives because we have failed to ask. Now together with the whole church we have this opportunity to seek God and to ask God what He wants for us.
AMEN
