Don’t Lose Heart!
"Then Jesus spoke a parable to them,
that men always ought to pray and not
lose heart."
Luke 18: 1
Every parent has had the experience of being worn down
by a toddler who keeps asking for some “can’t wait”
item.
The request is genuine and legitimate, but comes at
an
inopportune time for the parent.
In order to stop the asking, the parent stops
what they are doing and grants the
child’s
request.
Jesus told a parable with a similar set of details. A widow
kept
approaching a callous judge in her pursuit of justice in a
certain
matter. He ignored her requests until finally he relented
because
the widow“ was driving [him] crazy” (Luke 18:5, NLT). In
other
words, she wore the judge down until he gave
in.
The parable was about not losing heart in prayer, but in no
way
was Jesus comparing God to a callous or hard-hearted judge. In
fact, just the opposite. He basically was saying, if a callous judge
will grant requests, how much more will our loving God?
When a widow was bold enough to ask Elisha for
help,
it was given. And Jesus says the same: Ask God
boldly
and persistently for what you
need.
"Prayer is not only asking, but an attitude
of mind which produces the
atmosphere
in which asking is perfectly
natural."
Oswald Chambers
