Luke 18:1-8 [Always Pray and Not Lose Heart]

[Things to Meditate On]

1. Jesus spoke this parable to teach us that we ought always to pray and not to faint (v. 1). This is probably because it is not right for us to have a discouraged heart before God or to fail to pray always. Therefore, no matter how difficult the time of tribulation may be, we must not lose heart, but must pray to Jesus every day by faith.

Proverbs 24:10 "If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small."

Psalm 50:15 "And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "16Rejoice evermore. 17Pray without ceasing. 18In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

2. In the passage above, Jesus said that a widow in a certain city kept coming to a judge, pleading with him to grant her justice against her adversary. And He said that she came so often that the judge was troubled by her persistence, even wearied by her. This was because the widow firmly believed that the judge was the only one who could resolve her problem. Likewise, we also must have faith like this widow. Truly, because Jesus alone can resolve our problems, we must cry out to Him day and night with this kind of faith.

3. In verse 8 above, Jesus said, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" This is a word of lament from Jesus over us because we do not pray by faith. It means that there are very few people in this world who have faith. Besides this word, when Jesus compared the faith of the disciples to a small "grain of mustard seed" (Matt. 17:19-20), and when He called this generation a "faithless and perverse generation" — that is, a generation that has departed from the word of God — (Matt. 17:17), these were also words rebuking our lack of faith. However, not everyone was without faith. There were also those who had great faith, such as a certain centurion (Matt. 8:5-10) and a Canaanite woman (Matt. 15:21-28). Therefore, we too must long for the word of Jesus more earnestly so that we may have such great faith. The reason we must hear the word of Jesus in order to obtain faith is that our faith comes from the word of Jesus (Rom. 10:17).

Matthew 15:21-28 "21Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 22And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 23But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. 24But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 25Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. 26But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. 27And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. 28Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour."

Matthew 8:5-10 "5And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 6And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 8The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."

Romans 10:17 "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

[Decision and Application]

As Jesus taught us through the parable of the widow, the solution to every problem must be "prayer."

Mark 9:28-29 "28And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? 29And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting."

And that prayer must be prayer offered "with patience and firm faith" (Mark 11:22-24). This is because the prayer of faith has great power in its working.

James 5:13-18 "13Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."

As this passage says, "the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up," the only One who can resolve our problems is "Jesus alone." Jesus also said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Therefore, now all things can be made possible only through Jesus. For this reason, just as the widow kept going and pleading with the unjust judge who could resolve her problem, we can now receive answers by praying "to Jesus in the name of Jesus." Because Jesus is not an unjust judge, He promised that He will hear our prayers speedily, and we must believe this word (v. 8).

John 14:13-14 "13And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it."

John 16:24 "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."

Amen.