Living on a Prayer
Dr. Marty Baker / Luke 18:1-8 / March 23, 2003
Sometimes I struggle with prayer. I wonder if God can really hear me? Am I getting through? In my mind I know that prayer is the a direct line to God and that with God all things are possible, but does God have time to take me seriously?
This week God has had a lot of people on the prayer line. People all over the country have been calling on God; they have been praying for the troops in the Middle East. They have asked God to protect them, guide them, and bring them home safe.
Have you ever wondered if God can really handle the sudden infusion of heavenly interest? Is He capable of processing the important from the unimportant? Does He know who has a security clearance and who does not? At times I wonder ... I wonder if God really has time. Does he really care about my life?
If we are honest enough to admit it, most of us live as though God does not have the time to care. Because if we really believed that God listened to our prayers, we would take prayer more seriously.
As it is, most of us only get serious about prayer when times get tough. We take prayer more seriously when terrorists invade our shores or when our troops go off to war. Closer to home, we take prayer more seriously when we find ourselves in a desperate situation: maybe our spouse leaves, our child gets sick, we lose our job, or our future becomes uncertain.
In my own life, a jolt of reality has a way of waking up my prayer life. My life gets out of control and I am backed into a corner. I have no other option than to call on God. It is during these times that I wake up to the fact that God has never left me, but I am the one that wandered away. I am the one that walked away from God’s purpose for my life and decided to go it on my own. As a result of my decisions, I walk further and further away from God, away from His concern, and into the land of desperation.
Today we are going to talk about a person in the Bible who has walked a similar path. Her story is found in Luke 18 and it is one of the parables of Jesus. Over the last several weeks, we have been in a series of messages called A Jesus Story. This series is based on the parables that Jesus taught. As you may know, parables are fictional stories that feature real-life characters. Jesus used these stories to reveal the true heart of his audience. Let’s look at Luke 18.
Luke 18:1-3
1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
2 He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men.
3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ’Grant me justice against my adversary.’
In this parable, Jesus is talking about a woman who was in a desperate situation. She was a widow and was being sued by an enemy. To make matters worse, she apparently does not have any support from family or friends and her opponent was demanding an unjust settlement. It appears that the facts of the case were on her side, so she went to the court system and got permission to approach a judge. The judge assigned to her case was a wicked and merciless judge and he refused to grant her the protection that she was entitled to.
Luke 18:4-5
4 "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ’Even though I don’t fear God or care about men,
5 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!’"
She did not have any recourse, so she returned day after day to pester the Judge with her presence. The Judge did not respect her or her faith, but he was concerned about his own political reputation. If he failed to take care of a widow’s case, his friends may look down on him. He finally agreed to help.
Luke 18:5b
... I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’"
The widow was persistent and wore the Judge out. She gave him no rest day and night. She was continually before his court, hounding him, harassing him, plaguing him until finally the judge was forced to act. He granted her request and she got what she needed! Right here lies the whole point of the story.
What is Jesus after? He is simply indicating that this widow found the secret of handling reluctant judges! She discovered the key to political power. Jesus said, "God is not like the judge. If you want his power, you can find it in perpetual prayer."
At times, we all feel like victims of forces which are greater than we can manage. We feel overwhelmed by inescapable problems, but Jesus says that there is a way to the place of power, there is a way to a certain solution of our problems, there is an answer to the unbearable pressure. It is found in prayer. When we cry out to the heart of God, He will answer our prayers and move in our behalf.
Jesus said that God is not like the unrighteous judge. He will not delay an answer to our prayers. You do not have to batter him, he will move on your behalf.
Luke 18:6b-8b
6 ... "Listen to what the unjust judge says.
7 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?
8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.
Too often we do not have what we want because we do not persistently pray.
James 4:2-3
2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.
3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
The gospel of Matthew teaches the importance of prayer in chapter 7.
Matthew 7:7-8
7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
When these verses were originally penned, the verb tenses used conveyed the message: ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking. Matthew was encouraging his readers to persistently pray. Too often we give up on praying when we do not see a ready answer.
We need to press through to Jesus. In the New Testament, there is a story about a woman who suffered with a hemorrhage for twelve years. He heard that Jesus was in town and went to see him. Her story is told in Mark 5.
Mark 5:24-34
24 So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him.
25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.
26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.
27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,
28 because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed."
29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
31 "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, ’Who touched me?’"
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.
33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.
34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
This woman had to press through the crowd to get to Jesus. At times, we have to press through the opinions of the crowd to touch Jesus. The crowd weakens our faith through negative thoughts and horror stories. To get to Jesus, we must press through the crowd.
At times, we press through the crowd only to hit a road block. For one reason or another, there is a delay in our answer. What do we know about delays. We know that God’s delays are not necessarily denials. He has reason for his not yets.
Sometimes God delays in order to test our faith. He wants to see if we really trust Him.
Sometimes God delays so that we can modify our request. Over times we may see that the original request was not quite legitimate. As we understand the situation better, we may want to modify it to make it more in line with God’s will.
Sometimes God delays so that we can develop character qualities such as endurance, trust, patience or submission - qualities that come only when we wait patiently and trust in his timing. A lot of spiritual gains come through pain, hurt, struggles, confusion and disappointment. Today’s parable is teaching us the importance of being persistent in prayer and trusting God for the right outcome.
The widow in today’s parable prayed a specific prayer. "Grant me justice from my adversary." We need to be specific as we pray. Specific prayers help focus our faith. In the end, we will be able to see the answers to those prayers.
This week the President has encouraged us to pray for our nation and our troops. For the last several weeks, we have designated Tuesday as a day of prayer. We have encouraged people to pray for our nation, our troops and our church. We will continue to open the church up every Tuesday for prayer until this national crisis is resolved. If you have loved ones serving in the military over seas and would like for us to pray for them, post their name and / or their picture on the prayer kiosk in the Atrium.
This past week Steve May of Alderson Press encouraged his readers to focus their prayers in this National Crisis. He outlined several important things to pray for. I want to share them with you this morning. I believe that they will help us as a congregation pray as we approach the coming weeks.
How should we pray this week?
• The war will be over quickly.
The President has warned us that this war might take a long time; I’m praying that he’s wrong. At this moment, it appears that victory could come quickly. Let’s pray that this conflict is resolved quickly.
Secondly, I pray that...
• There will be minimal loss of life. We need to pray this for both sides. Our war is not with millions of Iraqi people; our war is with a handful of oppressive leaders. Our goal is to get them out of power. I’m praying we can do it with minimal loss of life.
• Peace and prosperity for the Iraqi people.
Earlier this week, Donald Rumsfeld reminded us that our purpose in this battle is not to colonize Iraq. Iraq, its land and its resources, belong to the Iraqi people. Let’s pray that a stable government is established and that religious freedom will flow. As I said Wednesday evening, I believe that positive things can occur out of this negative situation. Let’s pray that the message of Christ will shine into the darkness of the Arab world.
• Justice will be done.
The Iraqi people have suffered enough under this oppressive regime. Pray that the wrongs of the past will be made right.
• Courage to do what is right.
Pray that our leaders and our troops will be filled with courage to do what is right for us and the citizens of Iraq. It takes courage to do right. It takes courage to love the unlovable ... to face an enemy ... to make an unpopular decision ... to stand up for Jesus Christ. These things take courage, and I’m praying that we will be a courageous people.
War is never good, but sometimes it is necessary. The leaders we have put in office have decided that in this instance it is. We need to support them fully. Leading up to the war, debate was hot and heavy. Now that war has begun, Congress stands together in unanimous support of nation’s troops. We must do the same.
As we close this service today, I realize that some of you may be fighting your own personal war. You feel as though your enemies have the upper hand and that you are losing ground. God has not left you; He is waiting for you to call on His name. There have been times when I felt like I was all alone, but in the end, I realized that God was there with me. He is the force that brought me through the difficulties that I have faced and He will do the same for you.
Closing Prayer
