Keep Praying! Don't Lose Heart!

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:1-8 ESV)

So, I think for maybe the past several days the Lord has been putting this secular song in my mind called, “Be Here Now.” The song is an original by a father-daughter singing duo, Matt and Savanna Shaw. It is not a Christian song, so it is not based in the Scriptures, but it has some practical lessons in it that we can certainly learn from to apply to our lives, some of which can certainly fit with this passage of Scripture, which is why I believe the Lord put it in my mind. For the lessons need to agree with Scripture.

In the song, the daughter is singing about how she worries about tomorrow and what her future is going to look like, and if she will ever fall in love, and if her parents will be proud of her and the path that she has taken. And then the father sings about how he replays his whole day when he goes to bed, wondering if he did the right thing or if he should have done something different, etc. And their conclusion is that they could spend their whole lives chasing whatever they think is missing and they could miss their whole lives trying to change the past, but they would rather live in the here and now.

Okay, so what does that have to do with this story? The parable is intended to teach us that we ought always to pray and to not lose heart. And some of the reasons that people lose heart is because of long histories of their prayers not being answered the way that they had hoped, perhaps because history just keeps repeating itself over again, but not in a way that they have control over, but in ways which are beyond their abilities to do anything about other than to just keep praying, and to keep trusting the Lord, and to keep following the Lord in doing whatever he leads them to do or to say.

So a lot of what we must do is to come to some of the same conclusions as this father and daughter, that we can’t change the past and we really have very limited control over what our future holds for us, and worrying about either solves nothing, and so we just have to live life today. But then we must live it by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to his will and purpose for our lives, trusting in his sovereignty over our lives, believing that God’s timing is perfect, and that he is in control, and that he is going to work all things for good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.

The woman in the parable wanted justice against her adversary. Our adversary is the devil, but he also works through other human beings who then also become our adversaries. Especially if we are walking in obedience to our Lord in holy living, and no longer in sin, and if we are sharing the truth of the gospel of our salvation, and if we are refuting the lies of the enemy, the enemy is going to be coming against us, and he will do this through other humans. And we are human beings, so we will feel the pain of the opposition against us, and so we will cry out to God for relief.

But when relief doesn’t come, and when our circumstances do not change, it can get disheartening. But this isn’t just about praying for justice, for we as followers of Christ are to pray for our human enemies, and love them, and do good to them, and do or to say what is beneficial for them in the eyes of the Lord. And we should be praying for their deliverance from their slavery to sin so that they will no longer serve the enemy, but God. But it can get disheartening there, too, when we don’t see change, and we want so much for them to turn from their sins to walk in obedience to the Lord.

So, in order for us to stay the course, and to keep on praying, and to not give up, and to not lose heart, we must let go of the past, and we must forgive, and we must learn from it how we can do better now, and we must live in the present, and we must not worry about the future or how long it is going to take before our prayers are answered. We just have to take it one day at a time, praying, believing, trusting the Lord, following him wherever he leads us, and not let lack of visible results get us to lose heart.

One day our Lord is going to return and he is going to take his faithful bride to be with him for eternity. And for us who have died with him to sin and who are living to his righteousness and in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living, in the power of God, who are not those who are living in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord, we will go with our Lord to be with him for eternity. And then all our pain and sorrows and heartaches will be no more. And when this happens, it will be quick.

Until then, we must keep persevering, no matter how much longer we must wait for the Lord to answer our prayers. And we must not give up! And in the process we must be those who keep on learning and who have teachable spirits to let our Lord teach us through our difficult circumstances what he wants us to learn about him, and about ourselves, and about what he wants us to do or to not do, and where he wants us to change to be more like him. No worries about tomorrow nor about the past. Just live one day at a time by faith in obedience to our Lord, and keep praying, and don’t lose heart.

Pray, Pray, Pray  

An Original Work / September 6, 2012

Based off Various Scriptures

Pray that eyes may enlightened be,

So they may know Christ.

Pray that they may Him better know,

Strengthened by His pow’r. 

Pray that they may grasp 

How wide and long

And high and deep

Is Christ’s love.

Pray that they may be filled

To the fullness of God’s love.

Pray with thanksgiving.

Pray for an open door for me,

So I may share Christ.

Pray when the gospel is proclaimed –

Shared with clarity.

Pray words are given me so

I declare the gospel fearlessly.

I pray for you to be active

Sharing your faith, too.

Pray continually.

We oft not know for what to pray,

So we ask for help.

The Spirit intercedes for us – 

Words cannot express.

Just keep on praying for the saints

With all kinds of requests to God.

Pray they may have faith to 

Please their God in ev’ry way.

Pray with joyfulness. 

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