Keep on Praying

Written on 09/09/2021
Christian Dunn

Verse: Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 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? 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?”

Thoughts
God hears you. Let's start there. This parable teaches a few things, but first off it teaches us that God hears us. He hears you.

No matter what you are going through, no matter how trivial, or huge, your prayer is, God hears you. You can have confidence and faith that you are heard.

He doesn't always answer our prayers in the time we want, or in the way we want, but we can also trust that God is moving on our behalf. God responds to our prayers. The tricky part of this is that we want to control that response. We want to be in charge. Like God is a fast food drive through and we get what we want when we want it. That's not really how it works.

There is mystery to prayer. It isn't easy to explain, and God isn't someone we can control or manipulate. 

But we do know from this parable that he would say to us to "always pray and not give up."

Today, what prayers have you given up on? Maybe God would encourage you this morning to keep on praying. You don't know what it will do, or when.....but the encouragement isn't "pray and get what you want." The encouragement is to keep on praying. 

So don't give up. Your Father hears you, and he is working on your behalf. You can trust him.