WSG/WSM 17-10-10
Luke 18:1-8 – Persistence in Prayer
Father, we pray this morning that you will reveal more about the nature of prayer to us. We ask this in Jesus’ Name Amen.
Story: In the late nineteenth Century in South Africa, an old man was digging for gold in a river bed.
He had been at it for many years.
Every now and then he found a little bit of gold, not enough to make him rich – but just enough to maintain his interest.
The part of river in which he was prospecting was quite new to him - and there were more signs than usual of the presence of gold.
He was quite excited - gripped by the gold fever, but, once again he found little of substance.
As his dig neared its end, he found himself exhausted and discouraged.
He was just about to go home one evening when he saw some pebbles.
He liked the look of them, so he slipped them into his pocket.
There were about a dozen of them.
At home he got out a tin and put the pebbles into it.
The tin was special – for it was filled with very personal items,
letters from his son,
a photo of his wife who had died some years before,
the collar from his old dog who had died 18 months earlier.
He put the tin back on the shelf in a cupboard and forgot about the pebbles he had found
Another ten years went by and he still hadn’t made that gold strike that he had so longed for.
By now he was very old, and ill, with no ready money to pay for a doctor - he died.
A few days later the police came to his house.
They looked through his belongings to see if there was anything they could sell -to pay for his funeral, but they found nothing of any value.
Even his house was just an old wooden shack falling to pieces.
And then they found THE tin.
As one of the officers looked through it, he gasped with surprise.
"Look at this" he said to his partner. He was pointing to the pebbles the old man had placed in that tin 10 years earlier.
"They`re uncut diamonds!", he said, "They`re worth a fortune"!
The old man had INDEED been very rich.
But he had died thinking that he was very poor - because he hadn’t looked closely enough at what he thought were just ordinary pebbles.
He`d spent the whole of his life searching for riches, but had missed the FACT that those pebbles were the answer to his longings.
We Christians have untold riches too, that we never tap into.
The Bible calls them “prayer”
And when we do pray, we don’t persevere with it
In this morning’s gospel reading Luke 18:1-8 Jesus focuses on prayer - using the parable of the Unjust Judge to encourage us to stick at prayer.
We should pray so we don’t lose heart.
Prayer is very precious to God.
We read in Revelation 8: 3 and 4 that there is only one thing that we can do that will be in the throne room of God
The prayers of the saints.
That’s our prayers –not our deeds
Our prayers are equated with incense offered to God at the altar.
“Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.
The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand.”
What JESUS is NOT saying.
It is important to note what Jesus is not saying with Parable of the Unjust Judge.
He is NOT saying that God is as parsimonious in answering prayer as the unjust judge was frugal in dispensing justice.
Judges were notoriously corrupt in Jesus’ day and the implication of the parable would be that some rich person has bribed the judge not to give the widow justice – probably stopping her inheriting her husband’s estate.
Without the protection of a benefactor, the widow wouldn’t have any strings to pull. Nor could she offer any kind of bribe.
Yet, in this parable, her persistence won through.
What Jesus is saying is that : If the Unjust Judge in this parable gives justice to the woman - surely God - who wants to answer our prayers - will answer prayer.
For me, there are three challenges from this passage:
1. God is looking for people who are persistent prayers.
2. He is looking for people to be changed through prayer
3. He is looking for people who have time for him
1. Let us look at the first of these challenges:
God is looking for people who are persistent in prayer
The Jews in Jesus’ day, limited prayer to three times a day, so that they wouldn’t wear God out by their pestering.
Jesus taught quite the opposite.
God is glad when we pray.
And the real danger is that we will wear out first. That we will run out of energy and give up praying.
It is worth noting that the woman came to the judge because she EXPECTED to win.
In other words, she had faith in receiving a fair judgment from the judge EVENTUALLY.
I meet people who really don’t EXPECT God to answer prayer. And it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There may be some of us here today who find prayer very hard.
The reason we don’t seem to get anywhere may be because our motivation is suspect:
I’d like to ask the question
When I pray - why do I pray?
1.1 Do we see prayer as some sort of Divine insurance policy.
Is prayer something we do to appease an angry God.
1.2. Do do we see it simply as a religious duty.
Like cleaning our teeth in the morning. Somehow it is good for us
So many people know God wants us to pray, but have no real idea why.
They certainly don’t think that God will ACTUALLY intervene on their behalf
1.3. Or do we pray because we think it makes us better people
Somehow people think prayer somehow makes us better people.
For those of you who know your Bible well, you may recall the attitude of the Pharisee in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:11-14.
There the Pharisee thought he was a cut about the Tax Collector, because he prayed and fasted regularly whereas the Tax Collector didn’t
2. The second challenge is that God is looking for people to be changed through prayer
What is real prayer?
Prayer is the turning of a person to God
As it says in 2 Chr. 7.14
If my people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and will heal their land.
If we don't repent of our wrong ways and come in a humble attitude - we can FORGET to PRAY.
That’s why we always start our services with a prayer of confession.
It is when a man or a woman repents – God can really use him or her
Story: In the 18th Century, John Newton was the slave trader.
He swore and cursed. He sold slaves. He nearly lost his life in a storm and it was in that storm that he found God.
He renounced his evil ways and eventually became a vicar in the Anglican Church.
He helped William Wilberforce in outlawing slavery in the British Empire.
He was one of the leading men of the Evangelical Revival in England.
You may know him as the author of the famous hymn: "Amazing Grace".
No one is too bad for the Grace of God, if he repents.
3. The third challenge is that God is looking for people who have time for Him.
Prayer is COMMUNICATION between God and us - as a man talks to his friend (Ex. 33:11)
Conversation needs to be two way.
We need time for private prayer with God.
We need to shut ourselves away and have this intensely personal time with God.
The devil is out to get us so busy - that we overlook our time with God.
And it is especially true for vicars!
Jesus said in St. Matthew’s Gospel
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.
I tell you they have their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room close the door and pray to the Father who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. (Matt. 6: 5/6)
Jesus - after intense ministry- used to go away, even from his closest disciples to pray quietly.
St Mark records the following in the life of Jesus:
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. (Mk1:35)
If Jesus needed time alone with God, don't we even more?
We need also to LISTEN to the Voice Of God.
The Lord says through the Prophet Isaiah:
Hear me you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts. (Is 51:7)
You will not hear the response from God until you
LISTEN to Him.
As it says in the Psalms,
“Be Still and Know that I am God.” Ps. 46:10
In the hustle and bustle of life – we need to slow down – draw aside and spend time with our heavenly Father
What a privilege it is to call God – Dad – because that is the meaning of the word ABBA
In conclusion:
The three challenges from the parable in the Gospel reading this morning are:
1. God is looking for people who are persistent prayers.
2. He is looking for people to be changed through prayer and
3. He is looking for people who have time for Him.
Are we prepared to be men and women of God who will fit the bill
