Persistent Prayer

August 4

(Luke 18:1-8 NIV)  "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 the earth?""

(Matthew 6:9-13 NIV) ““This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, {10} your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. {11} Give us today our daily bread. {12} Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. {13} And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.””

This parable is not a theological statement about God. God does not see prayer as a “bother”. He doesn’t need to be worn down before grudgingly giving us what we demand. Jesus told this parable “to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” It is about our need to persist in prayer. It is about scrapping our self -sufficiency and coming to God with our hands held up and our hands held out. Self-sufficiency is a spiritual disease. It’s touted as a virtue, but it destroys community and discourages dependent prayer. For the embryo of prayer to grow in us, we must kill the beast of self-sufficiency. We must learn to depend daily on our Provider. We must realize our desperate need for God’s provision in every area of our lives. We must not tire of coming before God for our daily needs. He never tires of us coming to Him. Persistence pays off in many things, but especially in prayer. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day