Parable #34 The Persistent Widow

The Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8) teaches the necessity of patient, persistent, and persevering prayer, much like Parable#25 of the Persistent Friend (Luke 11:5-13). A mention of prayer precedes bothparables. Though delivered in different situations, they both show the absolute, immeasurable contrast between God and men, and provide evidence that God yields to the saints’ pleading and urging. Both parables depict a person granting a request because of his selfish motives. The Persistent Friend’s persevering prayer is for necessities, while the Persistent Widow’s is for protection. Both parables conclude that God will not fail us as friends and acquaintances often do.

The Parable of the Persistent Widow is especially linked with the final crisis of the last days and the painful circumstances the faithful remnant will face. Prayer will be a major resource for them. Since vengeance is God’s alone, they know He will judge their oppressors, but as they wait for deliverance, persevering prayer will be their refreshment and supply of patience. The parable is preceded by Jesus’ exhortation on the Christian duty to pray, dedication in prayer, and resisting the temptation to discontinue prayer. It concludes by indicating that prayer is a matter of faith.

1. What does the word “always” express about the dedication we need in praying? Luke 18:1.

Concerning our habits of prayer, “always” does not mean we should pray every single minute of the day. If this were so, thefaith involved in prayer would be a dead one, as we would never have time to do the works required with it (James 2:17-18, 20, 26). “Always” means that we should be faithful to our regular times of prayer. Concerning the time of prayer, “always” includes the fact that we should pray in both good and bad times. Sadly, some pray only in a crisis, and others forget to offer a prayer of thanksgiving when God has intervened to solve a problem or provide a blessing (I Thessalonians 5:17-18). Regarding the spirit of prayer, “always” means we should be continually ready to pray, praying whenever a crisis hits or a need arises. Because they reveal our priorities, good habits of prayer show dedication to God and strengthen our relationship with Him.

2. What causes people to discontinue praying? Same verse.

Comment: “Not lose heart” or “faint” (KJV) means to grow weary, to give in to evil, to turn coward. We must resist the human tendency of growing weary in prayer. We have a duty as the elect of God to pray. There are several major causes of losing heart: defilement, doubt, danger, distractions, and delay.

» The defilement of sin kills interest in spiritual exercises like prayer. Sin does not promote a good prayer life—in fact, it will stop it dead. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear” (Psalm 66:18).

» Praying with doubt is faithless, making the prayer useless. Doubting the inspiration of Scripture and the power of God hinders prayer (I Timothy 2:8). As prayer and faith go hand in hand, so do unbelief and not praying.

» Prayer must sometimes be done atdangerous times. Danger weeds out the coward from the courageous. Daniel faced real danger in praying, but kept on praying, even though it led to the lion’s den (Daniel 6). Today, our dangers are varied, but the danger of embarrassment often affects people more than danger of physical harm.

» Satan is a master of causingdistractions, especially during prayer time. Probably every saint has experienced his mind wandering, causing him to think about everything except what he should be praying about.

» Few things cause us to lose heart in praying more than delays in answers to our requests. Jesus uses this parable to teach us that, though answers often appear to take a long time in coming, we should persevere and not grow weary in praying to God.

3. Why does Jesus compare the dealings of God with a corrupt judge? Luke 18:2-8.

Comment: Jesus compares God, not with a good man, but with a godless man to emphasize the vast difference between this unjust judge and the righteous God. The conduct of the unjust judge exposes the chaotic and corrupt judgments in which he had prostituted himself. No one can compel him to do anything because he feels no regard for anyone, including God. He acts purely out of self-interest. Yet, if this unjust judge could avenge a widow whom he disdained, how much more will the righteous God avenge his elect (Jeremiah 11:20)?

This parable reveals God’s willingness to hear and answer the supplications of His elect (Luke 18:7), responding when they are offered according to His will. The word “avenge” (verses 5, 7-8) implies the working out of His vengeance in justice, not in retaliation. If God’s elect are wrongly treated, they can be sure of vindication. So, if the unjust judge because of a selfish irritation avenges a troublesome widow, how much more will the selfless God come to our aid? We can expect substantially better treatment from a God of lovingkindness than from a heartless judge.

The widow, who speaks only five words, does not prevail because of her persuasive plea but because of her persistence. Sometimes too many words reveal a scarcity of desire or a lack of purpose. Jesus tells us long prayers and useless repetitions will not make God hear us any better (Matthew 6:7). He already knows our needs (verse 8).

God has assured us that He hears and answers prayer. We must have the faith of Christ that God can provide what we need, enjoys hearing us ask according to His will, and desires to give us abundantly what we should have.

Persistent prayer – Is it biblical? Is it acceptable to repeatedly pray for the same thing, or should we ask only once?

Persistent prayer is something on which Christians do not always agree, but the Bible gives some guidance. Luke 11:5-13 records the parable of the friend at midnight. In it, a man who knocks repeatedly on his friend’s door receives what he requests more so because of his persistence than because of the friendship. Jesus goes on to say that if we ask, seek, and knock, we will receive. He further elaborates that humans – who are sinful – give good gifts to their children; He states that our heavenly Father will give us even greater gifts. This is a picture of persistent and expectant prayer. We trust that God is good, and so we ask for His gifts. Luke 18:1-7 shares a similar parable, this time of a widow and an unjust judge.……However, Paul remarks in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 that he pled to the Lord for something three times. God refused Paul’s request. Interestingly, Paul ceased praying, not because he gave up or thought it inappropriate to ask God more than three times, but because he had received an answer. It just happened that the answer was no. ……Some see repeatedly asking God for the same thing as a lack of faith or a sign that we do not trust that God heard our prayers. They assume that persistent prayer is presumptuous and rude. Others see not repeatedly asking for something as a lack of faith or a sign that we do not trust in God’s goodness. Not persisting in prayer means we have given up too easily. ……In truth, both perspectives can be valid. The Bible encourages us to ask God for things. It demonstrates persistent prayers. Paul pled with God three times before receiving a solid answer. David made consistent requests of God in the Psalms. Jesus even prayed three times regarding the cross (Matthew 26:36-46). When we bring our requests to God, we honor Him. We reveal the desires of our hearts, and we admit that only He can meet them. Often, our repeated requests relate to other people. In those instances their hearts must be changed in order for our request to be granted. ……On the other hand, sometimes repeatedly asking for the same thing demonstrates our unwillingness to accept God’s response. Some treat repeated requests as a sort of magic formula that will force God’s hand. God is not obligated to say yes to our every request. Rather than submit to His will, sometimes we persist in prayer over something for which we have already received a response. God has told us no, and, like a rebellious child, we refuse to accept it.……We know that God is good and that He desires to give us good gifts (Matthew 7:7-11 Luke 11:13). We can continue to seek Him through prayer and to make our requests known to Him (Philippians 4:6). But in our persistence we must be willing to submit to God’s will. God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). We know that whatever we ask in His will is granted (1 John 5:14-15). We also know that sometimes our hearts do not understand His will or His timing. At times we must be willing to wait for God’s yes to manifest. Other times we must be willing to accept no for an answer. When we know God and trust His good character, we can repeatedly bring Him the same request and rest in the fact that His response will be best for us. God desires both our persistence and our submission. …

How does prayer work?

…By Beth Hyduke…God redeemed Christian believers to be in continuous fellowship with Him (Ephesians 6:18). Prayer is an important part of that relationship. There is nothing wrong with quick “SOS” prayers to God in times of unexpected trouble, as long as they are not the only kind of prayer we are offering up. We all have experience with so-called friends who only call us when they want something, and as a result, it’s never much of a relationship. True friends spend quality time in each other’s company; the closer the friend, the more you enjoy and appreciate being with that person, and the more time you want to spend with them. In a similar fashion, I think our prayer lives honestly reflect (and usually convict us of) how little we actually love the Lord, however much we claim to love Him. When we only pray when we get in a jam, or when we don’t pray at all, we reveal our sinful inner state — that a relationship with God is not our priority.……That being said, there are some very short “SOS” prayers recorded in the Bible that prove that prayers do not need to be lengthy or formal for them to be effective. King Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:3) and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 5:19,13:14) provide two Old Testament examples of this, and Stephen’s prayer in the New Testament as he was being stoned to death is another example (Acts 7:59-60). The efficacy of prayer in these three cases, and in all cases, is not in how the one praying feels or what emotions they experience, but whether God hears and answers their prayer. The Bible assures us that “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16), so if we are redeemed believers we don’t need to worry about our prayers going unnoticed or unanswered. Regardless of how we may feel from moment to moment, we know that God both hears and answers the prayers of His people.……One reason that people get frustrated with prayer is because they look at it as a kind of business transaction: they plug in the right formula of words and emotions and God gives them whatever they want. This is not what Christian prayer is, not what it is for, and not how it “works.” God’s Word tells us we may bring our needs, requests, and petitions to God and be confident and assured that He will answer our prayers (i.e. Luke 11:5-13, Luke 18:1-8). But we must remember that God, who knows everything, knows what is best for us in a way we oftentimes don’t, and He may (and sometimes does) deny our requests and petitions. When this happens, it is part of trusting Him to accept if He denies our requests, it is because He has something better for us than what our limited sight can see. We come across one example of this in 2 Corinthians 12. The Apostle Paul repeatedly asked the Lord to remove his “thorn in the flesh” but God flatly refused to do so, choosing instead to use Paul’s infirmity to display His strength through Paul’s weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).……Prayer teaches us that we must surrender our will and preferences to the Father’s will and wisdom, just as Jesus did on the eve of His death, when He prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup be taken from Me; nevertheless, not as I will but as You will” (Matthew 26:39; emphasis added). Turning over our requests to God in prayer is a demonstrable way of expressing our faith that the goodness of God’s plans for us is better than whatever we can imagine for ourselves. When God’s answer is no, sometimes it means that He is teaching us perseverance and patience and that we should endure in prayer, continuing to bring the matter before Him (as Jesus teaches in Luke 11:5-13). Even when God’s answer remains permanently no, it doesn’t mean that our prayer didn’t work, it just means we need to realign and resubmit ourselves to His better plan and will for us. Bring your requests before God (Philippians 4:6) and then, as Martin Luther put it, “let God be God” in deciding how to answer and resolve them.

A “no” answer to prayer means we need to realign and resubmit ourselves to God’s better plan for us.

Now a quick word about hearing God in prayer. There is a lot of confusion and bizarre teachings on this topic, and as a result, there are a lot of confused, disappointed people who are praying, fully expecting to hear a voice answering back, or goosebumps, or chills, or an overwhelming gut feeling, etc. When it doesn’t happen, they go away frustrated, assuming their prayers aren’t working. While there is a sense in which God speaks to us, there is also a sense in which He doesn’t. The Bible records instances where God spoke audibly to people, but even in the Bible it was a pretty infrequent occurrence. In the life of Jesus, for example, there are only three times when God spoke audibly to His Son. When God speaks to us, the primary means He uses is not an audible voice or strong feeling but His self-endorsed written Word. It’s much more exciting (and much less work) to expect to hear the voice of God answering you back as you pray than it is to read and study Scripture and then apply it in your life. As a result, people end up neglecting the Word God has authorized as His inspired revelation to us, and instead, they seek hunches and feelings and intuitions, baptizing those as if they were the divine voice of God. It’s a big mistake and can lead to all sorts of wrong conclusions about God’s will because what we are actually following when we do this is not the sovereign, infallible God but our own finicky gut. Theologian RC Sproul humorously puts the question like this: “How do you know that it was God speaking to you? What’s the difference between the inner voice of God and indigestion?”……These words about prayer apply to Christian believers. There are plenty of unbelievers who find themselves in trouble and throw out prayer as a sort of last-ditch effort to offset the discomfort they are experiencing. To someone in this situation, I would say that while they remain an unbeliever, they do not have the same access to God or the privilege of reconciliation and communion with God that the believer enjoys 24/7. But there is one prayer that an unbeliever can pray that God promises to always, happily answer yes, and that is the sinner’s humble prayer of confession and repentance, in which he or she asks God for His forgiveness and salvation. God never turns away or ignores anyone who comes to Him in contrite and humble sincerity of heart (Psalm 51:17, John 6:37, Luke 18:9-14). When He accepts and redeems a person, He grants them full access to Himself (Ephesians 3:12), gives them a new heart capable of fellowship with Him (Ezekiel 11:19-20, 1 Corinthians 1:9, 1 John 1:3), and adopts them as His own son or daughter (Ephesians 1:4-5), inviting them to boldly approach Him and know Him by name as their loving Father (Galatians 4:4-6).