When introducing his study of the Lord’s Prayer, Martin Luther writes: “Our Father in heaven. What does this mean? With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true Father and that we are his true children, so that we may pray to him as boldly and confidently as dear children ask their dear father.” What a striking thought: “…boldly and confidently as dear children as their dear father.”
As I read these words, I can’t help thinking of nine year old Ralph Parker. You may know him better as Ralphie, the little boy from the movie: A Christmas Story. More than anything in the world Ralphie wants a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle – an idea his mother rules out from the start because as every mother knows and as she so plainly tells him: “You’ll shot your eye out.” But does that stop Ralphie? Oh no. He’s the poster boy for boldness and persistence. Day after day he finds ways of making sure his parents know what he wants. He opens his mother’s favorite magazine to the page that just happens to advertise that coveted gift. He writes a school essay on the subject that he’s sure his teacher will love and share with his parents. He never gives up, confident that in the end his parents will give him what he so desperately wants.
I’m not suggesting that we should all act like little Ralphie Parker when it comes to getting what we want. But there is something to be said about boldness and persistence, and today, it’s our Lord Jesus who says it to us. He doesn’t point us to the little boy in the movie, but to a helpless widow who plays a major role in one of our Savior’s famous parables. We’ll consider what Jesus wants us to learn from her under the theme: Christian, Don’t Give Up! 1) Pray persistently and 2) Pray confidently.
“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). With the simple word, “then” St. Luke places Jesus’ parable into its proper context. The Savior had just warned his disciples about the last days, a time when the world would grow more and more opposed to God and his Word. It would be a time of great trouble for Jesus’ followers, so much so, that they might well be tempted to give up on God, concluding that he could care less about them, or that if he did care, he was powerless to help them.
It is against this backdrop that Jesus then tells the story of a widow who falls victim to a great injustice. She has no one to turn to, nowhere to go except to court. There she might hope to encounter what we would expect to be society’s best, a man so honorable, so trustworthy and wise that he is chosen above all others to render justice on behalf of his community. But as Jesus explains the widow finds just the opposite: “…a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men” (Luke 18:2).
Wouldn’t you know it, the widow found a judge that cares nothing about justice. Her last best hope was now dashed. If there was ever anyone who had reason to “throw in the towel” it was this poor soul. But the words “I give up” were not in her vocabulary. Instead she “…kept coming to [the judge] with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary’” (Luke 18:3). The widow kept at it. Again and again she pleaded her case. “For some time [the judge] refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’” (Luke 18:4-5). Helpless and alone with the whole world against her, this widow doesn’t give up. She persists and she prevails!
What a timely lesson. We are living in the very age Jesus describes in the verses leading up to our text. With each passing moment our world grows more and more forgetful and defiant of God. Whether the issue is marriage or sex or gender or the right to life, you can be sure that if God says one thing, the world says the opposite. And where does that leave us? Feeling pretty alone and helpless just like that widow in Jesus’ parable. It seems as if the world is trying to rob us of everything we hold true and dear. Who will come to our aid? On what should we pin our hopes? On the upcoming elections? I don’t think so. Well, maybe the world is just going through a phase. Do you suppose it’s just a matter of time before everyone comes to their senses? I wouldn’t count on it. So what’s left? Do you ever feel like it’s time to give up? Is it time to concede the fact that when the final buzzer sounds the score will read: World – 1, Christians – 0?
Satan wants nothing more than to have us “cry uncle.” He wants to chip away at our trust in God. He knows that if he can get us to doubt any of the Lord’s loving promises, he might yet destroy our faith altogether and so reclaim our souls for hell. Is the devil making progress with you and me? The answer may be found in our prayer life. Are we showing our trust in God by turning to him in prayer for the help we need? Are we praying to him about the things that are happening in our country and world? Are we being as bold and persistent as the widow in Jesus’ parable?
I don’t know about you, but the woman in Jesus’ story puts me and my prayer life to shame. She had no reason to trust that the unjust judge would help her, but still she kept coming to him with her request, again and again. It is Jesus himself who points out how different things are for us. After the corrupt judge promised justice for the widow, Jesus said: “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?” (Luke 18:6-7).
The widow in the parable was tenacious when she had no reason to be. We, on the other hand, have God’s invitation to pray persistently and we don’t. The loss is ours, a greater loss than we can imagine. For by failing to take God up on his invitation, we are not merely passing on his offer to help us, we are sinning against him. Our silence speaks volumes about our relationship to him. What can it mean but that we doubt him and his Word? If we truly believed that he was ready and able to help us as he says he is, wouldn’t we be talking to him all the time about all that troubles us? Leave it to us sinners to take God’s good gift of prayer and turn it into something by which we offend him. For doubting his desire to help we deserve only his anger and punishment.
But the God of all grace does not want to treat us as our sins deserve. Despite our doubt and our frequent despair, our Lord remains sincere in his offer to hear us and help us. So what we should do? Should we pledge to pray better and more often? That would be great! But please realize that any desire to talk to God more begins with listening to God more. That’s because prayer doesn’t build faith. It doesn’t grow faith. Prayer flows from faith, and faith, in turn, flows and grows from God’s promises – like the ones right here in the Scripture before us.
Listen again to what Jesus says in verse 7: “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? (Luke 18:7). Do you hear what Jesus calls you? God’s “chosen ones.” Long before you were born, in fact even before time itself, God chose to love you in Christ. He chose to make you part of his family in Christ. In other words, before the creation of the world, God chose to save you by charging Christ Jesus with your sin, even your doubt and unbelief that make for such a pitiful prayer life. God chose to find Jesus guilty of all your crimes. He chose to count Jesus’ death as your punishment paid in full. He chose to count Jesus’ resurrection as the guarantee of your new life – a life that finds you loved and cared for, safe in God’s keeping this day and saved for heaven’s eternal day. You may have your doubts, but God doesn’t. There isn’t anything he won’t do for you now and in the future because of what he’s already done for you through the saving work of Christ.
This is the wonderful truth of God that inspires the boldness of his people! Christian, don’t give up! Pray confidently, trusting that for the sake of your Savior, God will always and only bless you. He will do right by you at the right time. This is the point Jesus makes in the closing words of our text when he asks: “Will [God] keep putting [you] off? 8 I tell you, he will see that [you] get justice, and quickly” (Luke 18:7-8).
It might be that we sometimes give up on prayer because we believe that God has heard us but has decided to do nothing, or at the very least, he’s stalling. Here’s another promise: God never plays games with us. He answers every prayer in the way and at the moment that is always best – best for us. I like how St. Peter says it: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Think of it this way: God who loves you is always quick to act with your eternal good in mind. What we think of as slow is nothing other than God’s patience at work in our lives. Rather than giving us something that will hurt us, his patience provides us the time to see that he has a different blessing in mind fo us. He gives us time to see and believe that his will is truly best for us.
So Christian, don’t give up. Be persistent not because you have to wear God out like the widow who had to keep pestering the judge or like Ralphie who thought he had to keep scheming to make his parents see things his way. Our persistence in prayer does none of this. In fact our persistence in prayer isn’t meant to do anything to or for God at all. It’s for our benefit. Because as often as we approach God’s throne of grace in prayer we are confessing that all others may fail us, but God never will. Persistent prayer is a reminder to self: “Our help is in the name of the LORD!” (Psalm 125:8). In all our prayers we can lay every burden at God’s feet and leave it there. But should we fail to do that, should the cares and concerns of life find their way into our hearts and minds once again, God’s invitation stands: “Bring those troubles back here to me.”
Christian, don’t give up! Pray persistently! Pray confidently knowing that your dear Father in heaven will answer you, his dear and chosen child. He will! He must for Jesus’ sake. Amen.