(Luke 18:1-8)…..1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, 2 saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. 3 “Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying,’Get justice for me from my adversary.’ 4 “And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself,’Though I do not fear God nor regard man, 5 ‘yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'” 6 Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. 7 “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8 “I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
We need to harass God until He finally gives in and answers our prayers. No, that is not what this parable teaches, although many have thought that was the case Jesus was making. Jesus tells us why He spoke this parable to them. Notice, “that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” The idea that we have to keep on begging God for the same thing (as if we were whining) until He finally gives us the answer we want, or until He gets so tired of us that He gives up to shut us up, produces no confidence and gives us no encouragement to pray! You see, God is not like the unjust judge. You do not have to come to Him repeatedly asking for the same thing until you finally convince Him to change His mind, or give in. Jesus is teaching something much different here. He is teaching us to be persistent in prayer, but not persistent in praying for the same thing over, and over, and over, and over, and over again and again. Notice that Jesus says, …..“ought to pray and not lose heart.” The Gr. Kakos is translated “lose heart” in (v.1) and means to “not give in to evil, harm” It means giving up in view of difficulty. Jesus’ purpose in telling this parable was to impress on us that we must continue to pray to God and not give in to the evil we see around us. We should not be cowards who lose courage and quit praying. Jesus told us that was His purpose, so we should not try to extract another meaning from this parable than what we see here. Jesus’ message is that God is nothing like an unjust judge, but infinitely better. You know that, right? So, if a poor widow can get help from a human judge who has no regard for what God thinks, much less what people think — HOW MUCH MORE can we expect our wonderful Father, the God who is the only Potentate, to provide help for us when we come to Him in prayer. Notice, how quick God will respond to such prayer, God will answer speedily (quickly)! It may seem to us at times that God is not answering our cries for help speedily. But Jesus said otherwise. God is working! Although God actually answers speedily, from our human viewpoint the answer may seem delayed. You can have confidence in God. When you pray He will listen and answer you speedily, that’s His promise to you. So keep on praying. We can have faith because God is merciful, gracious, dependable, and nothing like the unjust judge. God does not have to be convinced or coerced to help you. God loves you and desires the best for you. You can expect God to speedily help you when you come to Him in prayer. So, instead of thinking it does no good to pray, because God probably won’t answer anyway, this account was told to make us think the opposite. So, we are to pray in faith, and never doubt. We are to be confident and keep looking to God, knowing that God is working and our answer is on its way. When we know that, it would be foolish for us to “keep on asking” for the same thing over and over. Jesus summary statement in verse eight, which concludes with a question about faith, has this idea: God will be faithful. You can count on Him. There is not any chance that God will not be faithful to answer the cries of His people. But will His people be faithful? Will they persevere in their faith in God? Will they keep trusting God and believing in His goodness, even when it seems like answers do not always immediately come? Will people continue to believe what Jesus said, that God will answer speedily? Or will people give up and think it is useless to pray to God
On a side note, “Why should we want to pray? Because…….
- Jesus said, “men always ought to pray” – (Luke 18:1)
- Prayer is how we receive from God – (James 4:2)
- It is a sin not to pray – (1 Samuel 12:23)
- Prayer brings joy – (John 16:24)
- We are commanded to pray without ceasing – (1 Thessalonians 5:17)