The Power of Persistent Prayer

Have you ever gone through a season where you feel like your prayers are just not passing the ceiling? You spend time in prayer and patiently wait on the Lord but it seems like the doors of heaven are just shut. Jesus taught his disciples what to do in times like these.

Luke 18:1 - Parable of the Persistent Widow

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.

“There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly!”

I always thought the main character in this story was the widow. However, if you look carefully that is not the case. Jesus says, “Learn a lesson from this unjust Judge.” This is not just a message about persistent prayer, it’s also and more importantly a discussion about the character of God.

Please understand, Jesus is not saying, that God is unjust. On the contrary, He says, “surely God will give justice and give it quickly”. But that’s not the point that he’s trying to make with this story.

Jesus was trying to break an Old Testament paradigm that was deeply rooted in the minds of his disciples; they were taught that God, as a Holy and Righteous Judge, can be ambivalent to the cries of His people. Remember everything in their religious tradition (before this) is based on keeping the commandments found in the Law. They believed – If your prayers were not being answered it was because you had sinned. This was justified through the law. Jesus was trying to teach them about grace.

John 1:17 says,

“For the law was given through Moses;

BUT grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”.

The disciples were stuck in an old way of thinking - the old covenant of the Law. Jesus was trying to get them to understand the new covenant of Grace.

Let’s take the parable of the persistent widow and compare it to another of my favorite scriptures Matthew 7:7 where again He is teaching about effective prayer.

Matthew 7:7-8 says this…

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Do you see the parallel here with the persistent widow? She consistently petitioned for justice and eventually was rewarded for her determination.

Matthew 7:9-11 continues…

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, (though you are evil) know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Again this is a demonstration of the character of God and a paradigm shift away from traditional Jewish thinking. God is NOT an aggravated magistrate who is tallying our sins and waiting to cast judgment. He is a loving father who wants to give good gifts to his children.

Jesus was trying to get his disciples to see God in a more familiar way than they had ever experienced before. They thought of God as Adonai which means Lord, Master, or Owner. He was trying to give them an understanding of God as Abba. Which is much more intimate, like a child calling out ‘Daddy’ before crawling up in His lap. This is a very different relationship.

So the key here is an understanding that we need to be persistent with our prayers and live with an expectation that God is listening and wants to help us. This is one of the primary purposes of the Holy Spirit, to intercede on our behalf and carry our prayers before the throne of Grace.

Romans 8:26-27

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. When we do not know what we ought to pray, the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Okay, so by itself this is a really cool idea! The Holy Spirit will pray for us even when we are so stuck we can’t find the words. But that’s not all, the scripture goes on to say this…

Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

So while we are praying, the Holy Spirit is interceding on our behalf and God is listening and working out His plan for our good. But we also have to remember…

Isaiah 55:8 says,

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,”

The idea here is that God has a plan and if we are patient then things will eventually work out for the best. The problem is that we have become a society that is addicted to immediate gratification. Our culture is saturated with this fast food mentality. We have come to expect to get what we want, when we want it. But, God does not work this way.

Remember, the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God, and His ways are not always our ways. Every now and then when the desire of our heart lines up with His will and the timing is right, the answer to our prayer is a hearty, yes and Amen!

However, there are other times when the things we want are not part of God’s plan for our lives. He is a good Father and one of the difficult parts about being a good parent, is telling your willful child – No. We may be making a decision that will lead us in a direction that is ultimately harmful. We cannot see the end of all things the way God can, so sometimes our prayers bounce off the ceiling because God is saying ‘nope this is not what I have in mind for you at all.’

In my experience, one of the most frustrating situations in my prayer life comes when His answer is - Not Yet. This often comes when I am praying for a miraculous breakthrough and what God really wants, is for me to spend some time in the wood shed working on my witness. The Holy NOT YET can be an exasperating experience.

So, the long and short of it is this. Prayer is a lesson in patience and patience is one of those character traits that we don’t usually ask for.

James 1:2-4 says this…

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

There it is! Allow perseverance to finish its work in you so that you may become mature and complete, lacking nothing. So when your prayers seem to be bouncing off the ceiling, don’t give up! Remember the persistent widow and continue to spend those precious hours on your knees before God in prayer. I think Paul says it best in these two scriptures.

Hebrews 4:16

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

1 Thessalonians 5:17-18

Rejoice in the Lord always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

<>< Amen ><>

#Prayer