The Persistent Widow

Luke 18:1-8 “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?””

Prayer is more common than I think we all realize.

According to a Pew Research article, 76% of Americans say that they pray at least once a month (pretty solid numbers). That number would jump to 100% if they were on a plane that was going down though.

Prayer is a natural response! When we are faced with something incredibly difficult, it is in our nature as humans to pray about it, even if we don’t believe in a god!

I was talking to someone the other day who doesn’t believe in Christ yet, and even they said that they’ve started praying because it’s unlocked some source of hope for them.

They don’t even know who it is that they are praying to and it still works!

But, this story that Jesus tells illustrates one of the hard parts of prayer. What do you do when God doesn’t answer you immediately?

In this story, a widow who has no hope of surviving without justice being served is in desperate need, and an unjust judge is not providing the help that she needs

And I’m sure that you have felt this way before! Maybe you haven’t thought that God was unjust, but all of us have prayed for something and not seen it happen. We’ve all lost people, we’ve seen incredible hardship, we’ve seen good things slip away from us, all the while wondering why this prayer thing isn’t working!

This widow, however, will not take no for an answer, and she bothers the judge continually until he eventually relents and gives justice to the woman.

Jesus then says that if this will work for an unjust man, what could happen if we prayed consistently to the loving God of the universe?

Big Idea: Praying persistently is needed to have a right relationship with God.

Pray Persistently.

In this parable, we see that the only way that the woman was ever going to get what she needed was by persistently requesting what she needed, and Jesus says that we are to do that in our prayer life.

There’s another saying of Jesus that reminds us of our need to pray persistently.

Matt. 7:7-8 ““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

This verse is possibly one of the most misunderstood verses of the Bible. At first glance, it actually seems to go against what I’m saying!

“It says that I’ll get what I’m looking for if I just ask, but nothings happened yet!”

However, there’s an interesting note in the words that Jesus is using here. The words, “ask, seek, and knock” feel like a one time thing, but in the original language it’s in what’s called an imperfect imperative, which means that it is a continual verb.

Essentially, if we wanted a version that was closer to the original meaning, it would run like, “Keep on asking, Keep on seeking, and keep on knocking”

The verse is not saying “ask for something once, and if it doesn’t happen, that’s on you!” It’s saying to keep on going with your prayer! Prayer is not a single attempt, it is a consistent lifestyle change!

Prayer is part of a relationship, so it requires persistence.

I have a relationship with my wife (shocker). However, if we went on one date and then I never spoke to her again, then we wouldn’t have a relationship, we would have just exchanged small talk. Nor would we have much a relationship if all I talked to my wife about was asking her to do something for me.

In the same way, prayer is more than just a single attempt at a conversation to never be picked up again, nor is it merely just an opportunity for you to say the magic words of “Dear God,” and “amen,” and shove whatever you want in the middle. It’s a communion of the divine and the human, the sacred and the simple.

Prayer is one of the ways that we communicate with God as our Lord, our Father, and our friend.

I think we see that even in Matt. 7! We are told to ask, to seek, and to knock.

Asking is a request, it’s what we typically think of in prayer.

We ask for something, because God is powerful and can provide for us.

Seeking is more of a relational term.

Typically, in the Bible, we talk about seeking in terms of seeking God, trying to find out the will of God; searching intently to know what He would have for us.

That’s a lot more relational than just asking for something!

Knocking is a personal term.

When the Bible talks of knocking, it’s like when your neighbor knocks on the door asking for a cup of sugar, or like when you knock on your friends door to come in to dinner with them. It’s intensely personal.

Rev. 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

And so, in our prayer, we must be persistent because we are in a relationship with God, not under contract with Him!

Power in Persistence.

In the case of the persistent widow, we see that there is power in being persistent. She eventually gets what she’s been looking for!

And the same goes for you! There is power in persistence!

While a prayer might not be answered immediately, that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen, it just means that it’s not happening right then!

Look at the story of Elijah!

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah and some of the prophets of Baal have a prayer duel. The prophets of Baal pray that an altar would be consumed for a day and nothing happens, and then Elijah prays once and the altar is completely consumed, and the rocks making up the altar melted.

And that’s typically where we stop! It’s a really cool story, and it illustrates the power of prayer.

However, the next verses are important. You see, Israel had been going through a drought for 3 years. No rain in Israel for 3 years in a time when there was no solid agricultural irrigation system beyond rain. So, Israel is still desperate for water, after this experience, which is where we open up to in

1 Kings 18: 41-45 “And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” And he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go again,” seven times. And at the seventh time he said, “Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.’ ” And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.”

DID YOU READ THAT! SEVEN TIMES! Elijah had just seen a fire tornado come down from heaven and consume an altar because he said a simple prayer, and then it took Elijah praying seven times for a little rain!?

Why would that be in the Bible! Why didn’t God just answer immediately!

I think, (I don’t know, but I think) that God didn’t answer immediately to show that not every prayer is answered immediately. All things are answered in God’s time.

Our prayers are answered, but they are answered in God’s time.

Our prayers, just like the widow praying for justice, like Elijah praying for rain, like Abraham praying for a son, will be answered, but they will only be answered when it is the right time for it to be answered.

But, what about when our prayers aren’t answered in the way that we want? What happens when the diagnosis is still positive, when the relationship isn’t fixed, when your child is still far from God?

We have to know...

Persistence Requires Trust.

The great question of faith deals with this! Why do bad things happen when God is perfectly good?

What do you do when your fervent requests for a child feel ignored, when the prayers for a job are met with more rejection, when begging for healing doesn’t work?

Because we know that God answers those! I can list so many stories of God showing up in dark, difficult places and pulling people through, but I also know plenty of people who have been praying for the same thing with seemingly no response!

My honest answer is that I don’t know!

I have an inkling of what I might think on how God is still good, but none of my thoughts or philosophizing is going to help someone who feels like they are being crushed by the weight of their suffering!

But do you know what does help? Trust in God.

I might not understand exactly why God does things in the way that he does it, but I trust that He has a reason that I can’t see because I’m not God.

I can trust Him because I know that He is good, even when I have a hard time seeing it.

“In prayer we persistently, faithfully, trustingly come before God , submitting ourselves to His sovereignty, confident that He is acting right now, on our behalf.” - Eugene Peterson.

We can trust God because He suffers with us.

On the night that Christ was betrayed, He went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, and He asked His Father, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not my will, but Yours be done.” And He still went to the cross.

Our suffering pales in comparison to the suffering that Christ was going to suffer for us; and so He prays that His Father might remove this cup from Him. And yet, He still prays that God’s will would be done, even if that means being betrayed, beaten, and suffering on an instrument of torture.

A God who suffers with us is a God who is uniquely prepared to answer our prayers.

And so, some of your prayers will not receive the, “yes,” that you hope for. But I can be confident that, if I am persistently praying for God’s will in my life, that God will provide exactly what is needed for my flourishing in Christ and His glory on earth, which is exactly what I need.

D.L. Moody was a pastor in Chicago in the 1800’s. He had a list of 100 names of people who were not Christian. He would pray for them every day, and when one of them became Christian, he would check their name off the list. When he died in 1899, 96 of his names were checked off. The last four people were at his funeral, and gave their lives to Christ that day. I’m not asking you to pray for 100 people. I’m asking you, pray for five things this week.

Application: Set a reminder to pray for five things every day for this week.

You can set a reminder on your phone, you can write it on your hand, but one thing that I’m going to do is something I picked up from the 24/7 prayer movement in the UK. They used to provide leather cord, and you would tie a knot in it for every thing your praying for, and make it into a bracelet as a reminder.