Don’t Ever Give Up
Our scripture reading for today is called the parable of the persistent widow. The
widow is persistent. Now let’s see, just what does persistent mean? According to
the dictionary, persistent means to be insistent in a statement or request, to stand
firm permanently in spite of opposition; persevering. Constantly repeated;
continued. Yeah, I think the widow qualifies as persistent. She continued to come
before the judge, constantly repeating her request for justice. She refused to give up.
Persistence is a common theme throughout the Bible.
O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.
Psalm 22:2
But I call to God, and the LORD saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in
distress, and he hears my voice. Psalm 55:16-17
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long. Psalm 86:3
I call to you, O LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to you. Psalm 88:9
In Luke 11, a friend comes at midnight for 3 loaves of bread but the one inside tells
him to go away. Because of the friends persistence, the one inside gets up and gives
him as much as he needs.
John 5:1-8 The invalid spent 38 years trying to be healed in the pool.
Acts 5:42 “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never
stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”
Persistence..... the parable of the widow isn’t the only story of persistence in the
Bible.
You know, people often tell me they don’t understand parables, but we don’t have
that problem with this one. Luke tells us "up front" what Jesus means by this
parable. This story is to prompt us 1) TO "LIVE IN GOD’S FACE" in that we bring
every burden and every joy to Him. This is totally foreign to those who don’t know
our God. But it is the way He has designed that His people should live. This story is
also to encourage us 2) NOT TO GIVE UP! God intends that we should lean on
Him-- depend on Him in the spiritual warfare that is the reality of life. I’ve talked to
many people who believe the saying: “God will never give us more than we can
handle.” I used to believe that, too, but I now believe that, sometimes, God gives us
more than we can handle, so we can learn to lean on Him.
Point: If an unjust judge eventually listens to widow, how much more quickly will a
caring, loving God respond to one of His children..
We can have more assurance in these contrasts: Widow: a stranger. Us: His elect.
Widow: one. Us: many. Widow: facing an unjust judge. Us: righteous Father.
Widow: On her own. Us: God is for us. Widow: Pleads her own case. Us: We
have an Advocate. Widow: No promise of an answer. Us: Promise of an answer
given. Widow: limited access. Us: unlimited access(can pray to God anytime).
Widow: Asking provoked judge. Us: Asking delights God
Notice that this widow kept coming to the judge with her petition. Here is a picture
of persistence. She could have said:
I am not important enough for the judge to listen to me.
The Judge is too busy to listen to me.
He won’t do anything anyway.
He isn’t powerful enough to change things.
He just doesn’t care.
I just don’t care. It’s mind over matter. If I don’t mind it doesn’t matter.
Now, we do not know who this widow was, but it was not uncommon in that day
for a widow to have an adversary who was trying to take advantage of her. She may
not have had any family. A widow in those days was pretty defenseless. Someone
may have been trying to get her money or cheat her out of her land.
In any case, she had an adversary; she had a problem, and this judge was her only
hope. This widow was gripped by her request. So she came. "Grant me justice
against my adversary," she said. Continually she called to him. “Grant me
justice.” But she was talking to a hard man.
Let’s look at this judge. It says that he was a man who neither feared God nor
cared about men. This may mean that he wasn’t a Jew since Jews had a holy
respect and fear for God. It seems that he was very secure in his position and in his
authority because he did not care what men said.
Those who came before him, came fearfully unless they had a bribe, or great power
and influence. But the widow came. And when He did not act, she came again.
"Grant me justice against my adversary!" No result. But did she stop? No, she
only came again, and again. "Grant me justice against my adversary!" She had a
cause, and she cried out, persistently.
And the judge, though unjust, finally relented. We must recall that he was unjust. He
might have given her justice for a price, but she had no bribe. He did not fear God,
so he had no moral pressure from conscience to help her. He wasn’t Jewish, so why
should he do anything for this poor Jewish widow? What could she do for him? And
he did not regard man, except for one man, himself.
And that is precisely why he relented. He was afraid she would make a scene, and
make him look bad in they eyes of others. He was proud, and that is why he gave in
to her.
The widow also had a definite request. She knew what she wanted and presented
her petition to the judge. Today when someone goes to court in a lawsuit, they have
to have specific and definite requests for damages. To go to court with only vague
ides about what someone has done to you and what you want the court to do about
it is ridiculous. What if someone came to court and when asked about the complaint
said, "Well, they kind of said some bad things about me and I didn’t like it." What
things? What do you want us to do? … wash their mouth out with soap? … give you
some money for damages? "Yeah, give me some money!" Well, how about ten
dollars? No? Well then how much is some?
Sometimes, in flipping through the channels, I come across “Judge Judy” or “Judge
Joe Brown” or other shows like that. So for a laugh, I’ll watch the case being
“tried”. Usually, the litigants are vague in their complaints, or don’t have all the
evidence, or are otherwise unprepared. Because of this, they often don’t get what
they have asked for or deserve as compensation.
That often happens with our prayers, as well. We’re often too vague in our praying.
O Lord, bless me. Help me to live right. Help me to be what you want me to be. We
pray this way many times without ever asking God what blessing He would like to
give us; or what things we can or should do to live right; or what He wants us to be,
what our goals in life should be.
Above all, to pray effectively, you must pray persistently. God desires persistent
prayer. It is a mark of sincerity and earnestness when we are not easily discouraged
in our prayer life. Persistent prayer is overcoming prayer because it is serious
prayer. And when we get serious, God gets serious. We need persistence; we must
never quit.
Harry’s story
What a tremendous opportunity we have before us. We all want to have power with
God and man. And we can through prayer. God is not our enemy, like the unjust
judge could have been to the widow. In fact, the whole story is to illustrate the
contrasts. The Lord is the opposite of the unjust judge. He is merciful and kind,
looking out for the interest of his children. A good friend of mine always says, “God
will give us what we need, when we need it.” He will not put us off. This story is an
encouragement to us to call upon the Lord, for He is near to all who call upon Him
in truth. He will hear your cry.
Just like He heard the cry from the 10 lepers last week, He will hear your cry.
Now He may not give us everything we want, or when we want it, but He will hear,
and He will answer us. We can trust Him completely. Don’t ever give up.
