Luke 18:1-8
The Parable of the Persistent Widow
1Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'
4"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "
6And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
Jesus teaches us to never give up and keep praying...We should pray and never grow tired of keeping in touch with God...The judge did not like or care for the woman, yet he provides her with justice (of sorts)...God who loves us, will see that we are taken care of and see that we are given justice...God, who is love, will provide us with everything we need and more if we trust in Him...
This judge never cared for the widow...What he did care about was the time and number of times she kept bothering him..
The widow kept crying out to the judge, and at first he wouldn't listen...
God's people are people who pray and pray often...St. Paul tells us to pray continuously...The widow's sincere, earnest crying out, and persistence wins over the unjust judge...The judge did not even fear God or care about men...Albeit, he does not give her the true justice in the sense, he basically throws his hands up and says enough is enough leave me alone...
God on the other hand is the perfect judge...He loves us, He deeply cares about us...He wants us to pray and talk to Him... When we cry out, He is listening...He is always listening... God wants us to keep in contact with Him...He does not want us to talk to Him today, when we are in trouble and then not visit with Him again until next year, when we are in trouble again...He is always there for us...
Unlike the unjust judge, God loves us...We do not seek Him in vain...
Jesus ends this parable with an interesting twist and question... When He (Jesus) returns to earth, will He find faith on earth?... The focus goes from constantly praying to the Father, to our faith of people here on earth...
We learn from this that faith is important to Jesus...Are we just living and have no faith?...Are we living and praying constantly and still having no faith?...Regardless of how we answer His question we know that Jesus wants us to pray and have great faith...
Prayer and faith will take us to the end of times...Always pray and know the importance Jesus puts on prayer and our faith... We must remember if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, we can move mountains (Matthew 17:20)...