Keeping It Together When Your World is Falling Apart
Luke 18:1-8
(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.’
(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!’”
(6) And the Lord said, “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. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
INTRODUCTION: The original “Keep on believing!” and “Keeping the faith!”
The Padres faithful this year have continued to sing the team’s twin theme song, “Keep on believing” and “keeping the faith.” If I remember they used the same song last year. Now either they wanted to save all their marketing dollars for Proposition C, or they have realized there is tremendous power when you keep on believing and keep the faith.
However, the original “keep on believing” and “keep the faith” encouragement does not come from the Padres, nor from baseball, it comes from this great story from Jesus. The purpose of the story Jesus tells is shared with us in verse 1: “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
These opening words in Luke 18 follow Jesus’ description of the end of the world in Luke 17, which ends in Luke 17:37, with this comment by Jesus, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” Now I have the gift of discernment and that verse tells me somebody is having a bad day. When dead bodies or vultures pop into your life, you are not having a good day.
Jesus story in Luke 18 is great wisdom for those of us today who are having a “vulture” attack in life. Vulture attacks are like losing your job, battling illness, family crisis, or being financially in trouble. I don’t know what your vulture attack is today, I do that they quickly descend upon us. As we look at God’s Life Building Word today, I invite you to think of what vultures are threatening to attack and tear your world apart. For it is in those moments when it looks like the vultures are gathering around, you ask yourself:
How to Keep It Together When Your World is Falling Apart?
Jesus’ answer is simple and profound: P.R.A.Y. !!!!
Faith in action is a life of prayer, not just any old kind of prayer, but the prayer that can keep you together when your world is falling apart. The power is not in my prayer life, but in praying to our great God. As Jesus tells this story, he highlights 4 key aspects of prayer of how God can keep our life together when our world is falling apart. They are found in the acronym P.R.A.Y.
P is for POUR out your heart to God! Pray with passion! Put your whole heart into it. When you pray, pray with intensity, pray with feeling, pray with a sense of urgency, but most of all pray! Ever taken your kids shopping to figure out what they want for their birthday or Christmas. You go to the toy store and you say, “Give me some gift ideas.” And your child says, “I want this and this and this and this and this, but I really want this.” Now you know what he wants. In Jeremiah 29 we read,“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then You will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” -- Jeremiah 29:11-13
God wants you to learn to pray passionately. You usually discover He has this desire when your world start falling apart and the vultures are circling. People do one of things when life gets rough, they either withdraw from God or they dig their claws into him and will not let go.
It is unfortunate that we save our passionate praying only for emergency situations. God desires that all of our prayers to Him would be filled with passion. When you and I pray God does not measure the number of words, He looks deep into our hearts. Sometimes the most spiritual prayer you can pray when the vultures are circling around is: “Help!”
At the end of verse 8 is an interesting comment by Luke that Jesus says after this story. Notice Jesus’ comment, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” I never was sure why that comment was there until this week. I think Jesus is revealing what he prays about when he pours out His heart. His heart’s desire is to find faith in you and me. Jesus heart’s desire is to find people with faith in action.
When you and I pour out our heart in prayer, our God listens. And as God hears our prayer that leads to the letter R that stands for: R -- REMEMBER He loves you. Some people have taken this story of Jesus and assumed that his point is that if you nag God long enough and hard enough you will get what you want. They don’t say it that bluntly but that’s what they mean. For example, someone prays for healing and someone is not healed. I heard one person say, “They just didn’t have enough faith. They just didn’t pray enough about it.” Hogwash! When you pray God responds. Jesus’ whole point is that if this woman can get justice from an unjust judge, how much more so can you and I expect God to act because He is just and He loves you. The Bible is real clear here. One of the best known passages is John 3:16. Let me assure you from God’s own word -- “For God so loved (insert your name in the blank) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” -- John 3:16
Folks, that’s God’s Word, not my word. When your world is falling apart and you are trying to keep it together, remember God loves you. Do you realize what this means when you pray? God is not only willing to answer your prayers, He has the power to do so.
Haven’t you ever wished when you know the vultures were circling around someone you loved that you had a magic wand that could take all the pain away or that the purpose would be seen in the midst of the pain? I know I have. Loved ones who have died and I wished I could take the pain away for the surviving family, but I couldn’t. It wasn’t in my power, but it is in God’s power.
In John 3:16, God Himself tells us that He loves us so much that He gave up Jesus’ life that we might have life. Now if God has invested that much in our lives, don’t you think He is going to remember us when we pray?
The woman came seeking justice. She was precise in what she asked the unjust judge. To keep her life together she kept pouring outing her heart to that unjust judge and kept remembering he was the only one who could bring justice.
When your world is falling apart and you are trying to keep it together, remember God’s love for you. A guy died and went up to heaven. He saw all of these warehouses all over heaven. He looked inside and there were all these tremendous gifts like job opportunities, happy family life situations, marriage partners, financial stability, love, joy, and even patience. He finally went up to an angel and asked, “What is all this here for?”
The angel told the guy, “There’s a tag on every one of these items. Every tag says the same thing. Go check it out.”
So the man goes over and picks up a tag on a beautiful home, and it says, “Never asked for.” God invites us to come to him in prayer. He gave His Son’s life that you can have life. When your world is falling apart, His love can keep it together. This leads to a third key aspect of prayer.
A -- ALWAYS pray no matter what. After World War II and he had been prime Minster of Great Britain, Winston Churchill was asked to come back to the school he had graduated from as a child to give a speech to the students. After a long introduction by the school master, Churchill gave this speech, “Never give up. Never, never, never give up! Never, never, never, never, never give up!”
Jesus in verse 1 of Luke 18 tells this story that we should always pray and not give up. This is great advice, but I have a confession to make there was a time recently when the vultures were circling and I gave up. Yet even when I have given up, I have discovered that God never gives up.
How wonderful our God is that when we have difficulty knowing how to pray, he prays for us. Paul writes in Romans, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” -- Romans 8:26-28
If you have ever been in a world falling apart situation or seen the vultures circling and gone to God in prayer, you know what those groans are all about. It is that time when you don’t know which way to turn except to God, and you don’t know what words to say but your heart is aching so, and if there are any audible sounds coming from your mouth they are sobs usually accompanied with tears running down your eyes. It is like when I was in college my first year and was one homesick little puppy. I prayed persistently that God would find a way for me to go home to Florida if only for a short while because at that time I didn’t like Texas one bit, and then I got word that my grandmother had died and my parents would fly me home for the funeral. Talk about an instant grief and guilt combination. I probably wandered around that campus sobbing like a blubbering idiot. I don’t remember a single word I prayed, maybe there weren’t any. I do know that the Holy Spirit was there praying for me. I do the Holy Spirit brought peace. I do know that God never left me. And I do know that God will never leave you.
I love these verses from Romans 8. They are some of my favorite in all of scripture. The first two verses about the Holy Spirit praying for us, what a source of confidence and hope. Just because I might give up, doesn’t mean that God has.
I also love verse 28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Now this great verse has often been misquoted by well-intended Christians who stuck their foot in their mouth. It is usually said when person has the vultures circling around and their world falling apart and person B will say, well you know that in all things God works for good. This must be a good thing from God.
Let’s not blame God for all the evil in this world. Let’s recognize that we live in an evil world, and that people do deplorable things to others, and the result of all this is life is not fair. Let’s recognize what Paul is really saying, that no matter how much garbage and evil the world throws at us, no matter how many vultures are circling around, no matter how much we think our world is falling apart, God still seeks to pour good into His children’s life. My dad gave me a coffee mug that says, “Life it’s nothing like the brochure.” Let’s be honest, there are days when the world gives us it’s worst, but Paul says everyday, every moment God sows seeds of good. He can bring the best out of the worst situation, that is why we should always pray. That leads us to a fourth key aspect of prayer power to keep us together when the world is falling apart.
Y -- YIELD justice to God. Feeling guilty about sneaking out of the house for a game of golf, a husband left his wife a lighthearted note invoking the name of his favorite golfer, Arnold Palmer. It simply said, “I am playing golf. -- Arnie Palmer.”
When he returned home five hours later, he found a note beneath his original note: “I am shopping. -- Ivana Trump.”
When we have been wronged it is so easy for us to seek revenge. Yet instead of getting even, we usually find ourselves in even greater pain. David in the Old Testament knew the pain of being wronged. Saul was always unjustly over his back, but notice what David says in Psalm 37.“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret -- it only leads to evil. For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. ... For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones.” -- Psalm 37:7-9, 27
The widow found justice from an unjust judge, how much more will we find justice from a just God. For our God knows the pain of injustice, His Son died a death that He did not deserve. In that act of gross injustice, we find the love and power we need.
CONCLUSION: Prayer is meant to put into practice.
How then to keep it together when your world is falling apart? Pour out your heart to God. Remember God loves you. Always pray no matter what. Yield justice to God.
We must realize that prayer is to be more than something we merely talk about, but something we put into practice. Who will you commit to pray for this week in the three following areas?
This week I will pray for ...
1: My family: ________________________________________
2: My job: ___________________________________________
3. My church: My development as a dynamic disciple for Christ and how God wants my faith to be put into action: _____________________________________________
As we come to God in prayer, we will discover how He keeps it together in all of life. Prayer power puts our faith in action. Amen.
