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By: Pastor Horton

“Jesus told them a parable about the need to always pray and not lose heart.” -Luke 18:1

Once upon a time, a man failed again and again but he never gave up.  In his early years he started a new business.  It failed.  He instead ran for state legislator and failed.  He ran a second time and lost a second time.  He then switched gears back into the business world and failed again.  His fiancée died a short time before their wedding.  He had a nervous breakdown.  He went back to the political world and ran for Congress.  He lost.  Ran again and was defeated again.  Ran for Senate, and have you guessed it?  He lost.  Ran for Vice President of the United States and lost.  To make matters worse, he was often mocked because of his long arms, his towering height, and his unusual facial features.  A year later he ran for the Senate again and was defeated.  But finally, in 1860, the man whose name was Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States.  Many consider him to be one of the best presidents ever to hold the office.  He preserved the Union and freed the slaves.  And all this because he would never give up.  He persevered even when he could easily have quit.

There is a valuable picture here when it comes to our prayer life.  God wants us, his children, to continue to never to give up when calling upon him.  He wants us to preserve in our communication with our heavenly Father.  Jesus made this very clear one day when speaking to his disciples about prayer.

Luke 18 begins with this story: “Jesus told them a parable about the need to always pray and not lose heart: There was a judge in a certain town who did not fear God and did not care about people.  There was a widow in that town, and she kept going to him, saying, ‘Give me justice from my adversary!’  For some time he refused, but after a while he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God or care about people, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not wear me out with her endless pleading.’”

This woman had problems with someone treating her unfairly, so she brought the matter before the judge.  However, the judge felt she was far too insignificant to spend his time on her problem.  Consequently, he brushed her off.   So she persisted, coming back to him again and again, until finally he decided to grant her what she requested, all because she refused to give up.

Certainly our loving God never refuses to listen to our prayers, but there are many times that he answers our prayer with inaction.  In his divine wisdom he decides that the time is not right to grant us our wishes.  In his wisdom, he knows that it may not always be in our sou’s best interest to turn the gift of prayer into a list of demands for God.  He knows what will serve us best and when to give his good gifts to us.

Rather with a humble and grateful heart, we are encouraged to continue praying.  If we suffer from a grave illness, do we come to God just once and ask for his healing power?  No, we go to him again and again begging and pleading for his will to be done.  If we have a friend who refuses to believe in God, do we ask the Holy Spirit just once to work faith in that person’s heart?  No, we return to God again and again with the prayer that the friend would come to know Jesus as his or her Savior.  We are to pray with persistence.

God wants us to come to him as often as we can.  He will never grow tired of hearing the same prayer over and over again and we should never feel that we are bothering him.  Whether it be the well-known Lord’s prayer in church, our quiet prayers before bedtime, or the family prayer at the dinner table, let’s remember to persevere in our prayers!