-
Jesus on Prayer, Part 4
Take a few moments and read Luke 18:1-8.
Sometimes people are taken aback that Jesus compares God to a disrespectful, unjust judge. But the point of parables is never one-to-one correspondence. The point Jesus is trying to make is spelled out pretty explicitly by Luke in the first verse: “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Thanks Luke! That’s really helpful.
Jesus is informing his disciples that they can expect bad treatment, injustice, etc (refer to Luke 17 for this context). Like the widow, they are to be persistent in their prayers for deliverance and justice, because if an unjust judge will eventually give her justice, how much more will God do the same for those he loves? It’s the same kind of thing when Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him?”
Again Jesus seems to be placing a lot of emphasis on the character of God, the essential goodness of the One we are praying to. Of course God will eventually vindicate, of course he will bring justice, because of who He is. It seems this is the first thing we doubt when our prayers aren’t answered according to the timetable we set up. It’s remarkable how quickly we begin to suspect God’s motives when our prayers aren’t answered immediately.
The call to action in this parable is for us to “pray and not give up,” to maintain a tenacious, faithful persistence in prayer, especially as we pray for justice. The basis of this kind of persistence is an unshakable belief in the goodness of God and the certainty of his deliverance.
Prayer exercise
The Psalms are stuffed with prayers for God’s deliverance to come to those who are suffering. Praying the Psalms is a very ancient Christian practice that has helped many people give words to their “groanings.” Today we tend to stick with the “happy” Psalms, but the darker ones can really help us give utterance to our emotions and stay tenacious in prayer.Before the exercise, think for a moment on this question:
Is there a difficult situation or relationship that you have given up praying about?
Perhaps when the prayer wasn’t answered in a timely manner, you began to doubt his goodness. Perhaps you doubted God’s ability to bring justice or truth. Regardless, this prayer exercise is designed to help you start become more tenacious and faithful in “crying out day and night” to God.
The exercise is simply to read Psalm 13: out loud, slowly, at least seven times. Jot down your reactions and responses. Leave a comment about what happened.