Robert Morris - Why Keep Praying?: When You Dont See Results

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Why Keep Praying When You Dont See Results

2015 by Robert Morris

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ISBN13: 978-0-7180-2325-6

ISBN13: 978-0-7180-2356-0 (eBook)

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Contents

P icture a late afternoon following a long, weary trek along the dusty roads of Palestine. The Teacher and the twelve are looking for a place to get out of the sun and the heatsomewhere to rest a little before resuming their journey in the cool of the evening.

They find a bit of shade under a cluster of palms, near a well. Instead of napping, however, the twelve keep their eyes on the Teacher, who has another story to tell.

And no one wants to miss one of Jesus stories.

This time He paints a picture of a stubborn cold fish of a judge and his encounter with a vulnerable widow, who had suffered a terrible injustice in her life. This judge, however, couldnt have cared less about the widow and her worries. Time after time he turned her away, unwilling to help her or to make a judgment. But instead of becoming discouraged and accepting this treatment, the widow kept coming backover and over againto stand before this hard-as-nails official.

He just wanted her to go away, but she refused.

She refused to let go.

She refused to be put off or become discouraged.

She refused to give up.

She ignored his every attempt at intimidation.

She was there first thing Monday morning, when he opened the doors. She was there again on Tuesday when he looked through his office window. She was back again on Wednesday, ahead of everyone else in line. It was the same on Thursday and Friday and every other day court was in session. She became a fixture of the court, like a lamp or a benchand he thought he could hear her voice in his sleep.

He had been known as a stubborn man through the years, but he finally realized he had met his match. This widow was just as stubborn as he.

So the judge granted her justicesimply to get rid of her.

As Jesus told the story, the disciples probably looked at each other with a bit of bewilderment. Were they hearing right? Was He really saying that God was like a cranky judge who couldnt be bothered with little people and their problems?

No.

In fact, the star of this drama was the tenacious, single-minded woman who kept pursuing her goals in the face of indifference, hostility, and zero encouragement.

That, said Jesus, is how we need to pray.

And that is the why of this story. Luke 18:1 says it explicitly: Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart (NASB).

Lose heart? Thats another way to say give up.

In the original language, the term for lose heart means to be afraid, to become discouraged, to become weary or tired, to despair, to lose heart, to tire of. Jesus was saying, Dear friends, I want to encourage you to pray and to keep praying. Dont be afraid. Dont be discouraged. Dont become weary or tired. Dont give in to despair. Keep seeking God because (unlike the cranky old judge in the story) He cares deeply about you and will certainly hear and respond.

Again and again in their journeys, Jesus followers had watched how He made a priority of prayer. But why did He do that? He was and is the Son of God, equal with God the Father. So why would He invest so much time talking to God?

I believe Jesus prayed because He needed to pray.

Someone will ask, How could God need anything?

Heres how. When He chose to come to earth, He laid down His divinity and picked up His humanity. As a human being, He needed the power of the Holy Spirit in His life, just as we do. As a human, He needed to hear His Fathers voice. He needed to pour out His soul and have fellowship with the Father. He needed strength and guidance and help as He walked on this earth as a human being.

Heres a question for all of us.

If Jesus Christ, Gods Son, needed to pray and make vital, personal contact with God the Father every day, do you think theres a possibility that we need to do that too?

Absolutely, we do.

We need to pray. And as Jesus story in Luke 18 tells us, we need to keep praying even when it seems like the answer is a million miles away and will never come.

But why did Jesus tell that story anyway? Why did He encourage His followers to make prayer a huge priority in their livesand why was it important that they refuse to give up or lose heart?

Because He knew what was coming in their lives, and they didnt.

Jesus understood how desperately they would need that warm, personal, living connection with their heavenly Father. Difficult days lay ahead for them, days of testing and trouble. But if they really began to grasp what an immeasurable resource they possessed through the act of prayer, if they learned how to pray and practiced praying persistently, they would be ready for what lay aheadboth the trials and the unimaginable opportunities.

Jesus knows that about you and me too. We dont know what lies ahead of us in the coming days, but He does. We cant see around the bend in our lives, but He can. And He knows we need to pray. We need the counsel, perspective, warnings, and companionship of our God now and in the future. We need encouragement to keep praying, even when the answers dont come as quickly as we had hoped or dont take the form or shape we expected.