Pestering or Persistent?

 

“ . . . 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 18:5 (NIV)

 

My mother-in-law Jeanell told me that she really needed a job after she graduated from high school. She grew up in the depression and knew that contributing to the family income was important.

 

The problem was that everyone needed a job but very few employers were hiring. She had an additional problem: no car. So she knew that wherever she worked needed to be within walking distance of her parents’ home.

 

Since there was a company named Master Electric just two blocks away that made electric motors, Jeanell went to the foreman and asked for work. His response was the same thing many people were hearing: not hiring.

 

When she got back home, Jeanell told her father what the foreman had said. He responded to her news by telling her to go back and apply – again and again and again. “He will see how much you want to work and he will hire you,” her father encouraged her.

 

So day after day she went back to the same man and asked him for employment.  Finally after repeated visits, the foreman in charge exclaimed “Give the girl a job so she will stop pestering me!” and she was hired.

 

I couldn’t help but compare her story to the parable about the persistent widow and the judge in Luke 18. While I don’t know anything about Jeanell’s boss, I do know that the judge that the widow kept speaking to was unfair in his rulings.

 

However, that didn’t deter the widow because she was seeking one thing: justice. His answer finally came in her favor but it wasn’t because he had compassion for her and her request. Not at all. He simply wanted her to quit bothering him.

 

In verses 6-8 of Luke 18, Jesus uses this parable to explain to us, His children, a beautiful truth: if an unjust judge who neither fears God nor cares about a widow gives her justice just so that she “won’t eventually wear me out with her coming,” how much more will God who loves us answer our prayers when we keep coming before Him!

 

God the Father never grows weary of listening to us, His children, as we approach Him again and again in prayer. Be persistent in prayer. Our compassionate Judge listens and answers because He loves us and He is always faithful.

 

Father, sometimes I just give up and don’t keep coming before you with my prayer requests. Forgive me for not trusting you to hear and answer. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

R.A.P. it up . . .

 

Reflect

• Have you ever prayed about a situation once and then given up?

 

• What was your reason for not continuing to pray?

 

 Apply

• In your journal write down your prayers and beside each one, the dates of every time you have petitioned the Lord.

 

• If you find that you prayed once or twice and then quit, consider memorizing today’s power verses as encouragement to continually approach the Lord with your requests.

 

Power

• Luke 18:5 (NIV) “ . . . 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.”

 

• I John 5:14-15 (NIV) “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.”

 

• Psalm 121:1-2 (NIV) “I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”