Sermon Central
-
Persistent Prayer
Contributed by Anthony Zibolski on Nov 4, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: Prayer can change circumstances and prayer can change us. The Lord has told us to pray and never give up, both of these things are very hard when you are going through a hard time.
Persistent Prayer
Introduction-
We will continue to look at Jesus parables and how we can apply his teachings to our life.
Last week we looked at honoring God with our lives and make sure that God gets the glory.
This week we look at prayer-persistent prayer of the widow.
Prayer can sometimes be a thankless task.
Prayer can seem like nothing is happening and it would be easy to quit.
Prayer forces us to be disciplined and we don’t like that.
Prayer has us communicating with someone we don’t see but are hopeful that He hears us.
Prayer has a mystery to it, and has faith stretched to the max most of the time.
What can we learn from this parable?
Let’s set this up
There are 2 main characters- unjust judge and a widow who was wronged.
The widow wanted the judge to right the wrong and he was not interested in helping her.
Here is something you probably did not know-
Barna Group found that 90% of people pray. 86% say that they believe in God. It is Interesting that more people pray than believe in God. Why would they do that? Could it be for wrong reasons? I took my wife out the other night and was kidding with my friend that I was building up some “get out of jail free” points. Is that the right reason to do things? Give to get?
Illustration-
A young man went into the drugstore to buy 3 boxes of chocolate: small, medium, and large. When the pharmacist asked him about the three boxes, he said, “Well I’m going over to a new girlfriend’s house for supper. Then we are going out. If she only lets me hold her hand, then I’ll give her the small box. If she lets me kiss her on the cheek, then I’ll give her the medium box. But if she really lets me smooch seriously, I’ll give her the big box.” He made his purchase and left. That evening as he sat down at dinner with his girlfriend’s family, he asked if he could say the prayer before the meal. He began to pray, and he prayed an earnest, intense prayer that lasted for almost five minutes. When he finished his girlfriend said, “You never told me you were such a religious person.” “And you never told me your dad was a pharmacist.”
We as believers know that we should be praying.
We know that God answers prayer and is concerned with what is going on in our lives.
How do we go from knowing to doing it? The answer is found in this parable.
This judge was unconcerned about the needs of others.
He did not care what people thought of him.
We live in a society like that and we see people like that every day that affect our lives and most time it is a negative.
People with power that do us wrong and we like the widow are looking for justice.
This widow had some sort of adversary that was trying to take advantage of her. Likely they were trying to cheat her because she was a widow by stealing money or land because she was vulnerable and did not hold much weight in a court of law.
Strike one that she was a women.
Strike two because she faced a judge that did not care for anyone but himself.
Anyone relate to that? Your back is up against the wall and the powers above are showing no mercy and you feel helpless.
Jesus was talking to his disciples (v1) “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
2 things should come to mind first and foremost when you are up against something bigger than you are.
(1)- Always Pray
The prayer of the righteous man availeth much.”
Pray without ceasing.
P.U.S.H- Pray until something happens. It begins with prayer and it ends with prayer.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus.
Prayer is not the last thing you do , it is the first and the last thing you do!
Prayer is the greatest weapon we have at our disposal against an enemy that wants to destroy us.
Prayer is the way that we position ourselves to hear from God.
Jesus says “always pray”- persistence. I know that some teachings say give it to God once and after that it shows a lack of faith on our part. Listen, this parable was given by Jesus, He said that “She kept coming.” That is not a lack of faith, it is an example of faith. The poor widow had no money, no powerful attorney, nothing to bribe him with, she had persistence. Pray without ceasing.
