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Daily Grace At
Jesus` Feet
February
8, 2010 Persistence means “Refusing to give up or let go; firmly or stubbornly adhering to one's request or opinion.” Apostle Paul encourages us to “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” It is interesting to see Paul insisting “Persistent Prayer” while discussing the Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-19). Is not “prayer” a great weapon to fight against all strategies of the devil and to stand firm. In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus Christ teach us the power of the persistent prayer through the lesson he teaches us from the parable of the persistent widow. The purpose of the parable is to teach believers they should pray persistently and must not loose heart and hope in prayer and give up. Persistent prayer, like two sides of a coin, has two critical components. One is “pray always” and another is “Do not give up or lose heart.” Jesus does not mean we kneel and close our eyes 24/7 but says “be in the Spirit of Prayer” always. Like how the Law enforcement officers carry their guns even they are on “off-duty.” They are always equipped, available and on guard to face an enemy. As Christians, we are to keep our spiritual weapon of prayer always near. We have to stay alert and watch out for our great enemy, the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Prayer will keep us away from sinful thoughts and protect us from sinning. Someone said, “A praying man will not sin; and a sinning man will not pray,” Another point Jesus Christ insist in this parable is believers not to give up or lose heart in prayer. For several reasons believers lose heart in prayer. We lose heart and give up prayer when prayers not answered quickly, we lose heart when prayers not answered as we desired positively, and we also lose heart when the answer is delayed. Once, Rev. Charles Stanley spoke about the three kinds of God’s answers to a prayer: “Yes”, “Wait,” and “Something Better.” God grants a positive response by saying “yes,” sometimes He wanted you to “wait” for a while till he make things beautiful in His times, and sometimes, He say, I will give you “something better.” As Christians, we have more reasons to wait patiently and not hurry for an answer because we have a Father who desires the best for our lives. Some one quoted, “Waiting time in the Lord’s presence is not a wasting time.” David cries out God praying, “O God, listen to my cry! Hear my prayer! From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed (Psalm 61:1-2).” Again David prays in Psalm 143:4, “So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed. We too lose heart and give up praying when we are discouraged, when our spirit grows faint, and when our hearts are burdened and dismayed. Do not lose heart and do not give up! May times, we give up because of the lack of confidence we have in prayer and give prayer a second priority. That is why intercessory prayer in important in the lives of Christians. There is a power when two or three gather and prayer. This helps is not to be discouraged and giving up prayer for a particular need. As
we can see in this parable, the unjust judge who neither fear God nor
regard
men finally decided to grant justice to the widow. He did it not out of
compassion or fear of God but merely want to get rid of her from
bothering him
at his door steps. Repeatedly knocking the door of the judge paid off
at the end.
Jesus Christ makes a point here and tells us that if an unjust judge will heed a
persistence widow, how
much more a Just God will pay careful attention to His chosen people!
We as
Christians are His blessed and chosen people, we do not have a judge
but a
Father, and we are not strangers to God, unlike the widow who was a
stranger to
the unjust judge in the parable. The access limited to the widow when
approaching the judge and probably she might have been shoved away from
the
judge’s office. But we have a Father and we call Him, Abba …Father! We
can
approach the throne of grace boldly anytime, where we receive His mercy,
and find grace
to help us at the time of our need (Hebrews 4:16). Remember
a quote by Jacob Riis, “I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a
rock a hundred
times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow
it splits
in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had
gone
before.” Once,
Ignace Jan Paderewski, the famous Polish composer-pianist, was once
scheduled to perform at a great American concert hall for a
high-society
extravaganza. In the audience was a mother with her fidgety
nine-year-old son.
Weary of waiting, the boy slipped away from her side, strangely drawn
to the
Steinway on the stage. Without much notice from the audience, he sat
down at
the stool and began playing "chopsticks." The roar of the crowd
turned to shouts as hundreds yelled, "Get that boy away from there!"
When Paderewski heard the uproar backstage, he grabbed his coat and
rushed over
behind the boy. Reaching around him from behind, the master began to
improvise
a countermelody to "Chopsticks." As the two of them played together,
Paderewski kept whispering in the boy's ear, "Keep going. Don't quit,
son...don't stop...don't stop." (Credits: Today in the Word,
Moody
Bible Institute, Jan, 1992, p.8.) Prayer: Father, help me to persistently pray and not give up because of who are a loving Father in Christ to me. In Jesus Name…Amen! May you have a great Day! “Daily Grace at Jesus` Feet,” - Devotionals written by Dr. Paul Joseph. Copyright 2010 - 2011 Dr. Paul Joseph; All rights reserved.
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