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Luke 18:1-8
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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?" (ESV)
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Never Give Up
Monica, Mother of Augustine
27 August 2012
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All of us have experienced what we think to be an uncooperative teacher or coach, who seems to be too demanding or even vicious toward us. Nothing is ever good enough for him or her. In a Professor Charles Kingsfield-like way,they require us to excel by never being satisfied with our work or performance. Kingsfield, played by the incomparable John Houseman in the 1973 classic movie Paper Chase, unrelentingly demanded better thinking from his law students at Harvard Law School. In his famous stentorian tones Houseman, while playing Kingsfield, said, "I train your minds. You come in here with a skull full of mush, and if you survive, you'll leave thinking like a lawyer." Such teachers' high standards and prickly nature extract more from us than we ever thought possible.
Sometimes God's response to our prayers is Professor Kingsfield-like too. He does not answer immediately, although He knows what He will do, how and when He will do it, even before we express our petition. We sinners do not appreciate a thing easily and quickly gained. So often our heavenly Father makes us wait, and in this way He drives us to ever more fervent prayer. This exercise does not make His response to our needs any less gracious, for He will give what we need and even more than we can ask or hope. His apparent delay in answering is itself quite merciful because we are taught patient waiting on His certain rescue. It is as though He were saying to His earthly disciples, "No, I will not answer you yet. You must ask ever and again for me to reply. You must seek every help, delving into My Word with desperate need, mining their golden words of rescue and grace. You must knock at the door of my heart petitioning ever more insistently in faith." We must be like the widow of Luke 18 who will not let the unjust judge alone, but receives justice because she will not shut up.
Faith is that insistent petitioning of God that demands that God will do whatever He has promised. Faith is the widow, who abandoned by the world and left a victim of suffering and death, still petitions the court of God's justice for what He has promised. He has written His promise in the holy gospel and sealed it with the blood of His Son. How could He not fulfill His promises to us? He has sworn by Himself, and there is nothing greater upon which to swear, to give us all that we need and more. The demanding widow will never give up. For the judge eternal has promised. We should never give up.
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Martin Luther
"This is how we, too, should learn to ask and hope for help whenever there is misfortune and faith totters. For we have the promise of the gospel. We have baptism, absolution, etc., by which we have been instructed and strengthened. We have the command by which we are ordered to pray. We have the spirit of grace and of prayer. But as soon as we have begun to pray, our heart is troubled and complains that it is accomplishing nothing. Therefore one must learn that if you accomplish nothing by asking, you should add searching, that is, you should seek. If that, too, seems to be useless, and God conceals and hides Himself even more, add knocking, and do not cease until you storm the door by which He has been confined (Mt 7:7-8). For there is no doubt that our prayer is heard immediately after the first syllable has been uttered. Thus the angel says to Daniel: 'At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you' (Dan 9:23).
"But the fact that God does not immediately give what we pray for happens because He wants to be sought and to be taken by storm by insisting beyond measure, as the parable of the unrighteous judge teaches in Lk 18:2-8. For then He comes and liberates the elect and gives more abundantly than we have prayed, sought, and knocked. But He defers in order that our praying may increase and that our sobbing may become stronger. This sobbing seems very feeble to us while we are sighing, but it is actually most ardent. Thus Paul calls it a crying (Gal 4:6). For we not only recite words by forming a sound with the tongue and the lips or even let our prayers have a clear sound, but we simply cry out. There is no sound or voice of the mouth, but there is an outcry of the heart and ineffable sobbing; it is under the left breast, when the heart sobs and sighs as it almost fails for distress. Then indeed prayer is perfect and efficacious.
"This should be frequently stated and repeated, lest we cast aside all hope and confidence with regard to our praying. Even though this praying is cold at the outset and does not immediately gain help, yet we should know that help is postponed in order that prayer may become more perfect and stronger. For there is wonderful power and omnipotence in prayer. Thus when Rachel (Gn 30:25) seemed to be altogether despised and scorned by God and nevertheless still remained a dimly burning wick (Is 42:3), it was impossible for God not to be awakened when called upon, sought, and stormed. In the same manner He also helps all who call upon Him, and He helps so richly and liberally that they are compelled to acknowledge that they never hoped for any such thing. Thus Monica, the mother of Augustine, could say: 'I did not ask for this, and I never had the courage to hope that my son would ever become such a great doctor of the church.' Therefore we should never lose heart; but we should persist in praying, wishing, and seeking until hope and the awaited liberation appear."
Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis, 30.24
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Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, You have said that we ought always to pray and not lose heart. Send Your Holy Spirit that we might be endued with the faith to pray ever confident of Your divine promises. Keep granting us Your justice through the blood shed on the cross that when You come You will find faith upon the earth. Amen.
For all those who lack the courage to be insistent in prayer, that they might receive the faith as a gift from God and thus assail the throne of grace
For our fellow believers in Tanzania, that God would continue to give them the power of clear confession of the truth
For Rev. Roger Paavola, who was installed as the District President of the Midsouth District yesterday, that the Lord Jesus would keep him faithful to our calling as the brothers of Christ the Lord and servants of His bride, the church
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Art: DÜRER, Albrecht The Adoration of the Trinity (1511)
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 © Scott R. Murray, 2012
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