Persistent Prayer

If you've been around the church for any length of time you've probably heard the sermons that tell us that we need to be like the persistent widow in Luke 18 that came to the judge day and night. We are told that this is an example for us of how we should pray. However, when you look at the story more closely you see that we don't relate to the widow at all. Here's some things to consider:

The judge doesn't fear God or care about men. He is unjust.
The woman represented herself before the judge. No one represented her.
The woman was a widow and without a husband.

If you are a Christian here are some things to consider:

We come before a righteous judge and a loving father.
We have one who goes to the father and righteous judge for us. He always lives to make intercession for us.
We are not a widow, we are the bride of Christ.

The important thing to learn from this is that we are not in the same position as the widow; We have free access into the presence of our father and righteous judge. Jesus always lives to make intercession for us. There is no need to think we must spend hours, day after day begging God for an answer to our prayer. God's word teaches us that God will withhold nothing that is good for us. We must believe by faith that whatever we ask will be given to us and not doubt. I am absolutely sure that whatever I ask for in prayer, will be given to me as soon as possible if it is good for me. God will not give me a rock if I ask for a fish, God won't wait and give it to me later if it is good for me now. I only need to ask God once.

I do believe we should be persistent, but not the way the widow is in the story. We don't have to beg, we need to ask in trust. The difference is hard to see sometimes, but there is a difference.

04-25-2008 17:51

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