Prayer and the Persistent Widow

In Luke 18:1-8, we read about the parable of the persistent widow who repeatedly approached the judge for justice. He attempted to put her off each time she came to him with her plea, but he finally gave into her persistence and ensured that she received her request. In verse 7, Jesus tells us, "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?"

We must continue to give God our requests repeatedly while still having confidence that He hears us. We may not get the answer we expected or in the time frame we desired, but we need to remember that His ways are higher than ours and His understanding is beyond our comprehension.

Isaiah 55:8‭-‬9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And he continues with a promise in verse 12,
“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."

We can be confident that God has our best interests at heart and no matter how things look to us, God knows what is best and already knows the end from the beginning. And we know at the end of ALL things, we will overcome and we will be with him. That's a guarantee!

Just as He told the Israelites, He promises these very same words to us that we find in ‭Jeremiah‬ ‭29:11‭-‬12

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ...you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."

Sometimes, we don't know what to pray or even how to express ourselves in prayer. But Jesus left us with a helper, the Holy Spirit. We read in Romans 8:26,

"the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans."

So even when we are lost for words, the Holy Spirit will fill in the blanks as we approach the throne of God with our needs. We just need to take that step to approach God as He often works in response to our prayers. James says ‘you do not have because you do not ask’ (4:2)

And we read in John 16:23 "

…Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."

While God is always fully aware of our needs, He desires us to come to Him as his children, to seek him out, to look to him for our rescue and give up trying to do it all on our own.

As Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:7,

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

As we turn to our Heavenly Father with our needs and requests,

– Let us remember the persistent widow and repeatedly bring our needs to our Heavenly Father.

– Let us remember that we don't have to know the right words to say. We can approach Him with the simple words, "please help me" and the Holy Spirit will intercede with the rest of the words we can't find.

– And finally, let us remember that He has our best interests at heart. Our prayers may be answered in unexpected ways and within an unexpected time-frame, but they will be answered and the answers will be exactly what we need.

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