PERSISTENT PRAYER

Christians are to pray as long as it takes.

How long do you keep on praying when you don’t see an answer? 

Jesus knew that we can easily get discouraged about prayer.  So he told the story in Luke 18.  Quite a humorous story.  Jesus loved to use rascals as object lessons.  Here’s this tug of war between this powerful judge and this powerless widow.  The judge is hard-boiled, godless, unsympathetic, heartless, callous.  He couldn’t care less about this widow or anyone else.  Yet he has all the power.  The widow is powerless.  She has no clout, no leverage, no power.  In those days widows were at the bottom of the social ladder.  But she does have one thing.  Persistence.  She goes and begins to badger the judge saying, “I want justice.  I demand it right now.”  She really makes a nuisance of herself until finally the judge, exhausted, just gives in.  

There’s two kinds of stories Jesus told.  One is a parable of comparison: God is like this…  The other is a parable of contrast: God is not like this.

This is a parable of contrast.  God is not like this judge.  Jesus is saying, “If a heartless, ungodly judge will eventually give in to the request because it’s asked enough times, how much more will your Heavenly Father who loves you answer your prayers?” 

If that’s true, if God really wants to answer my prayers, how come my prayers aren’t being answered?  I’ve prayed for changes in my life and they haven’t taken place.  I’ve prayed for miracles and they haven’t happened yet.  It’s a legitimate question.

So Jesus told the story, Luke 18:1 (NIV) “He told His disciples a parable to show that they should always pray and not give up. 

Ephesians 6:18 (LIV) “Pray all the time.”  Romans 12:2 (GWT)“Pray continually.”  1 Thessalonians 5:17 (ICB)“Never stop praying.” 

Nowhere in the Bible does it say you can stop praying just because you get discouraged.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say you can just give up and quit because the answer hasn't happened on your timetable.  The Bible says, “Never stop praying… Keep on believing… Keep on asking.” 

Is there ever a time when I can stop praying for a particular issue?  Yes, there are two exceptions, two times when you can stop praying about a particular issue.

One, when God changes the situation, you can stop praying. In other words, He answers your request and the situation is changed.  If what you’ve been praying for happens, then obviously you can stop praying. 

Two, when God changes you, then you can stop praying.  Sometimes as God grows you and develops you,  you realize, “I don’t want to pray for that any more because that’s not what I really want any more.  I wanted that in that immature stage but now as I’ve matured, I don’t need that any more.  So I’m not praying for it.”  So God says it’s ok to stop praying.  God has not changed the situation but He’s changed you.

Somebody came to Daniel Boone the famous frontiersman one time and asked, “Have you ever gotten lost in the wilderness?’  He said, “No, I’ve never been lost.  I’ve been bewildered for weeks at a time but I’ve never been lost.”  When you’re bewildered you just keep on going. 

The point of the story is don’t be discouraged.  Don’t give up. Look up.  Don’t despair.  Turn to prayer. 

Isaiah 49:23c (TEV) “The Lord says,  no one who waits for my help will be disappointed."

Read:  Luke 18:1-8

ENDURANCE

 Endurance is what empowers us to finish well!

Someone recently described life to me as a football game.  Football games last for a total of sixty minutes and are divided into two halves of 30 minutes and four quarters of fifteen minutes.  All of the game is often lost or won in that last quarter!  As has been said before,  it’s never over until it’s over.  This is true in football as it is in life and especially the Christian life.  In the last quarter of our life; how will we finish?  What often makes the difference is endurance!  Endurance is the ability or power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way.  It’s about giving your all and hanging in there until the end!  How do we endure in order to finish the last quarter well? How do we keep that driving force to help us reach the finish line? To reach the eternal prize and crown?

We can endure by gaining encouragement from those who have gone on before us. See Hebrews 12:1  

All those of faith are spoken about in Hebrews chapter 11: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and all those who crossed the Red Sea out of Egypt.  We can add those who have gone on before us from our families and our church. They are all in the grandstands over looking this world and we are in the stadium of life.  They are called a “great cloud of witnesses”. 

We endure by keeping a single minded focus on Jesus.  See Hebrews 12:2  

Here is the secret of all success.  Having a single minded focus of what you’re after and trying to achieve. Distractions and temptations abound.  (See Parable of the Sower  Matt 13:3-9; 18-23) Victory comes to those who fix their eyes on Jesus by literally looking away from everything else and only towards Jesus! (see Phil 3:8)

We endure by being on guard against nor surprised by opposition.  See Hebrews 12:3

  

Opposition slows us and wears us down.  It’s the opposing forces in the Christian life that chip away at us outwardly and inwardly brings us down.  Consider the opposition Jesus faced.  It came first from the governing religious authorities and then from the governing government.

1 Peter 4:12-13   Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

Opposition against you will come.  It is opposition against Christ in you.  It comes at times from those who are closest to you.  Loved ones, family and friends. Don’t be surprised but be on guard.

We can endure by grasping the severity of our struggle against sin.  See Hebrews 12:4  

1 Peter 2:11   Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

In Hebrews 12;1 it is sin that entangles us and  here in 1 Peter sin wars against the soul. Sin is taken so lightly by our society.  In fact the line has been drawn so low today that no one trips over it any more.  But for God’s people running towards the prize, the line is very high and the struggle is great.  We must take sin seriously!  There is nothing that knocks the wind out of us more than sin.

The sidelines of the race course are littered with those who have fallen away because of their lack of  struggle with sin.  They have given in to it and not resisted it.  This is the easy thing to do.  “Everybody else does…. So why shouldn’t I?”

Lastly, we can endure by expecting to be disciplined.  See Hebrews 12:7

Discipline is part of being in a family.  Any parent that does not discipline their child; does not love their child!  The easy way for the parent is just to let them go commenting “they’ll grow out of it”.  But that is false.  Our society today is on the brink of outright lawlessness and it is going to get worse because of the lack of discipline!  Our society has banished the concept  and is, and will continue to pay the price for doing so.  Rev. 3:19   Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.

If God loves you and cares about you; He wants the best for you; He will discipline you in order to move you towards living a life in your best interest.  Hardship is a part of God moving you closer to Him.

Matthew 13:23   But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

These are the ones who hear and receive the truths of God and use them to keep their endurance and are able to finish well!

Read: Matthew 13:1-23 & Hebrews 12:1-7

PAIN

The very thing that discourages you the most, God uses to develop you.

Pain is like a warning light and it’s saying something’s wrong in my life.  Now, is it wise to ignore a warning light?  No, it’s not.  In the same way, it’s not wise to ignore your pain; it’s saying something’s wrong.  However we need to understand that:  Pain is a tool God uses for good in our lives.  Now, the problem is we often don’t understand it; we don’t realize what the good is.  In fact, Jesus said in John 13:7 (NIV), "You don’t realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."  And, nowhere is that truth more appropriate than pain because often pain comes into our life and we don’t understand why it’s there or what it’s there for.  We don’t see any purpose in it and if pain doesn’t have a purpose, it’s very difficult to handle.  It’s much easier to handle when you see a purpose behind it.

 

God can use pain to motivate us and spur us into action.  Pain spurs us into action like nothing else.  I’ve heard it said, “We don’t change when we see the light, we change when we feel the heat.”  Pr. 20:30 (GN) says, “Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.” 

You see, pain prompts us to do things we’d rather put off; it prods us and it pushes us and it compels us to change.  Pain forces us to change when we don’t want to change.

God can also use pain to guide us.  In other words, like a bit in a horse’s mouth, God takes pain and He turns us in different directions because of the pain. Ps. 119:71‑72 (LB), “ . . . it was the best thing that could have happened to me, for it taught me to pay attention to your laws.”

Now, David is saying that pain is a teaching tool.  Has God ever had to get your attention through pain?  You see, God whispers to us in our pleasure, but He SHOUTS to us in our pain.  He says, “I want your attention” and boy does He get it when you’re in pain.  Sometimes it doesn’t take a lot of pain ‑‑ you know just like a little rudder can turn a big ship, sometimes just a little pain in your life will lead you in a new direction and God not only motivates us into action, but He guides us through pain. 

God at times will use pain as a  measuring tool.  God uses pain to help you see what you’re like on the inside.  For instance, when I experience pain, the way I react to it measures my faith.  My commitments can be gauged by how I react to pain.  My maturity can be gauged by how I react to pain.  My patience can be gauged in how I react to pain.  It’s one way of seeing what’s on the inside of you.

We understand that people are like tea bags ‑‑ you don’t know what’s in them until you drop them in hot water.  And, you really don’t know what’s inside you until you’ve faced the test of pain. 

Sometimes God uses pain to protect us from something worse.  Sometimes He uses pain to protect us and prevent us from getting involved in something that we shouldn’t be involved in.  Pain can be a blessing in disguise. For instance, if you have a fever, that is a way that your body tells you that you probably have an infection in your body that needs to be dealt with and, if you never had any fever, that infection could take over your body, you might even die from it.  In fact, a minor pain can often trigger an awareness of a life-threatening disease and, if you didn’t have that pain, you’d never know it and you’d be gone.  Sometimes God uses pain to protect us.

 

When we feel depression, or when we feel resentment, or anger, or worry, or when we feel apathy, or when we feel fear, or when we feel hostility, it is saying to us that something is out of whack in our life; something’s out of balance, and God’s saying, “I want you to get this corrected”.

 

Lastly, God uses pain to make us mature.  You’ve heard this phrase before:  No Pain; No Gain!  It just doesn’t come any other way.  There are no five easy steps to life wonderful.  There is no gain without pain.  The fact is, we want the product without the process.  What’s the product?  Oh, we want the maturity, we want the emotional stability, we want the health and wholeness, we want the confidence and the meaning and significance and purpose of life; but we don’t want the process which is pain and suffering, and tough times.  We want all of the stability and wholeness of emotions, but we don’t want to go through the process.  But, you can’t short circuit it.  The very thing that discourages you the most, God uses to develop you and it is not an accident.

 

James 1:4 (MSG) So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. 

Read: Psalm 27:7-14 & 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

WORDS

Our words can say much more than we often realize.

For many of us we think to simplify life we’ve got to escape from all of it, go somewhere, disconnect our electricity and never drive a car again.  Many of us year after year have thought about simplifying or thought about slowing down but it’s just a thought. 

When it comes to the simple life do you want to reorganize your life or do you want to revolutionize your life?  If you want to reorganize your life any old “how to” book will do.  But if you want to revolutionize your life Jesus Christ is the one who can do that.  When we want to simplify our lives we usually want to start on the outside and reorganize this or that.  But Jesus doesn’t start there.  He starts by revolutionizing our lives from the inside out, making a difference.  He shows us how to do it in the real world that you and I live in today. 

Jesus Christ shows us how to do something.  Right here, where you live.  Right now.  He can change things, simplify things, start to work from the inside out.  A great place to start in simplifying our life is in the words we speak!  Words can tear down or they can build up.  Words can hurt or they can heal.  Our words can even define us! 

We can start to simplify our life by considering how we use words. A great place to start is being honest with our words to people.  Jesus had something to say about this. Matthew 5:37 (NIV) ^[37] Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'.

One business magazine wrote, “What separates the peak performers from the weak performers is the first group says “No” to anything that’s not important while the second group says “Yes” to everything.” 

While that may be a part of what Jesus is talking about here there’s something else.  There’s something deeper that’s at the center of what He’s saying when He says “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.”  He’s talking about being honest with our words.  He’s talking about having integrity with our words.  He’s talking about not being sneaky with our words. 

Do you realize how complicated life gets just because of a single lie?  So Jesus says, “You want to make things more simple?  Be honest with people.  Don’t call it a white lie or stretching the truth or you’re doing this for their own good.  It’s amazing how much more simple things become when we tell the truth.  Be honest in your words to people.  Even though that’s tough some times, it will simplify things.

Even more we need to be honest in our words to God.  Matthew 6:6 (NIV)
^[6] But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

“Make it simple”, Jesus said.  Just talk to God.  Jesus says, “Do you want to make things simpler?” Don’t start on the outside.  Start on the inside.  Think about how you talk to God.  Do you talk to Him honestly?  Are you able to just be yourself?  I like the way Matthew 6:6 reads in The Message translation.  Jesus said…. ^[6] "Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

Everything will be simple if we talk to God and just be ourselves in prayer.  Not just prayer will be simpler.  Everything will be simpler.  If  I can talk to God honestly in prayer because I don't have to put on a mask;  I then can see more honestly what’s happening in life.  If I don't have to put on a mask in front of God and fake it; I don’t have to fake it in front of others anymore either.  That’s how life gets simpler.

How do you talk to God honestly? You don’t talk to Him about what you think you should be thinking when you’re talking to God.  You talk to Him about what you’re really thinking.  You also talk to Him like you would to anyone else.  You don’t put on fancy words that you don’t use any other time.  You don’t use a tone of voice that you don’t use any other time.

Jesus told a story about it once.  He said there were a couple of guys in a church.  One was a religious guy, the other was a tax man who stole money from people.  The religious guy stood up and prayed, “God, thank You that I'm not like that guy over there.  He steals money from people.  I'm more holy than he is.”  The guy that was stealing money said, “God, be merciful to me.  I'm a sinner.”  Jesus asked the crowd that day, “Which prayer do you think God heard?”  The one where the guy was himself.

If you and I could just learn to be ourselves when we talk to God.  Jesus says that is one of the things that starts on the inside and works its way out and makes life simpler.  Be honest when you talk to God.  Be simple in the words that you speak.

Prayer: Psalms 19:14 (NKJV) Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. 

Read: Psalm 119:129-135 &  Ephesians 4:25-32