Are You A Person Of Faith Who Doesn’t Lose Heart In Prayer?
Have you ever found yourself getting discouraged in prayer? Wondering where God was when that person hurt you? Getting cold and cynical towards God and other people? Believing that God doesn’t act justly or doesn’t love you as much as everyone says he does or doesn’t listen to your cries for help? Or thinking that he doesn’t answer your prayers fast enough?
We all struggle with losing heart in prayer sometimes. In our text today I think Jesus knows that what he’s been laying down over the last few chapters is beginning to feel nearly unbearable for his followers so I think he wants to exhort us and encourage us not to lose heart but instead to continue growing as people of faith.
Look at Luke 18:1 – 8…
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
So Luke tells us in verse 1 that Jesus is using this story of the persistent widow and the unjust judge to encourage us “always to pray and not lose heart” in coming to God with our needs and our requests and as he does this I think he also uncovers some of the reasons that we struggle with losing heart in prayer as people of faith.
#1: I think we lose heart in prayer when we encounter people who neither fear God nor respect people… (2)
It can be really discouraging to encounter people who don’t fear God and don’t respect other people. In fact I think one of the most discouraging things to witness is someone who doesn’t fear God and doesn’t respect or love the people around them. I think it’s especially discouraging if this person is in a position of power or authority.
Look Again At The Unjust Judge…
Jesus tells us that, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.” Have you ever wrestled with the discouragement of encountering a person of authority and power who doesn’t revere God and doesn’t treat other people with respect and love? Maybe a parent or an employer or a spouse? Isn’t it discouraging to encounter these people when you feel like you’re doing everything you can to follow God and serve the people you come into relationship with?
This judge in our passage has the authority, the power and the responsibility to act justly on behalf of other people who do not have the power, the resource, the authority and the ability to receive the help they need. The judge’s responsibility is to be an advocate for the oppressed who are doing everything they can just to get by. But the problem with this judge is that he doesn’t fear God and he doesn’t respect other people. He’s not doing his job. He’s not living up to his job description. He’s not following through. He doesn’t measure up.
What happens in your heart when you encounter a person who doesn’t fear God or respect people?
When your spouse doesn’t live up to the godly standard of what a spouse should be? When your boss behaves in an ungodly way? When other Christians don’t behave the way they should? When your parents or your relatives don’t measure up? Jesus teaches us here that when we encounter people who neither fear God nor respect other people we must not become discouraged and lose heart but instead we must continue to come to him in prayer. Don’t lose heart in prayer!!
#2: I think we lose heart in prayer when we suffer injustice at the hands of our enemies… (3)
It’s really easy to wonder where God’s at when we suffer injustice at the hands of our enemies. When we are falsely accused. When someone gossips about us or slanders us. When someone suffers horrifying physical and emotional abuse. When someone suffers the crippling pain of sexual abuse. In all of these instances and more it becomes really easy to lose heart in prayer because we begin to believe that maybe God has abandoned us in our pain and our suffering. For anyone who can relate to this then the picture of the persistent widow in our passage can bring you healing.
Look Again At The Persistent Widow…
Jesus tells us that, “there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’” This widow would have been very poor if not possibly homeless. She wouldn’t have had a husband to provide for the family needs and in that culture it was very difficult for a widow to get a job. She would have been viewed by the public as a second rate citizen who relied on the welfare system for handouts. Somewhere along the way someone had taken advantage of her or abused her in terrifying ways and now she is coming to the one person on earth that should be her advocate and her dispenser of justice but to her horror she finds that the judge treats her with contempt and so its like she suffers a double injustice. A double injustice at the hands of her enemy as well as her failed advocate.
What happens in your heart when you suffer injustice at the hands of an enemy?
When someone abuses his or her authority or power over you? When someone mistreats you? When someone falsely accuses you? When someone hurts you deeply and then tells you it’s your fault? Are you tempted to lose heart in these moments because you can’t imagine a god that would allow this to happen to you? Do you begin to believe that there’s no way that God could have been present when that person hurt you so deeply? Jesus is encouraging us here to be just like the persistent widow. To never lose heart in coming to God with our prayers and our needs. Jesus is teaching us that even though we suffer injustice at the hands of our enemies we can trust that God has never left our side even during the most horrific injustice and abuse that have been committed against us. Don’t lose heart in prayer!!
#3: I think we lose heart in prayer when we encounter people with selfish motivations… (4-5)
When we encounter people who behave super selfishly then it’s really easy to just get cold and cynical towards God and other people. When someone uses you as a rung in the ladder for his or her personal success it’s easy to get cynical and cold. When someone treats you like a commodity in his or her relational structure it’s easy to get jaded. When someone sees you, as their ticket to quench their craving for power, pleasure and status it’s easy to clam up and lock yourself away from God and his people. Jesus knows the temptation and the risk we face in this life of becoming cold and cynical and jaded and guarded towards God and other people so he paints a picture for us of this selfish judge in contrast to the widow who doesn’t lose heart in seeking what was right.
Look Again At The Selfish Judge & The Widow Who Doesn’t Lose Heart…
Jesus tells us that “For a while he (the selfish and unjust judge) 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.’” In other words this judge is super selfish. He has selfish motivations. The only reason this judge quits refusing to act rightly on behalf of this widow is that he is tired of being nagged and he doesn’t want to endure the continual beat down that he is receiving from this widow who refuses to give up on pursuing justice for herself. Even though the judge refused to help… the widow refused to give up. Even though the judge refused to act rightly… the widow refused to stop asking rightly. The widow refused to get cold and cynical and jaded and sheltered even though the judge acted with selfish motivations.
What happens in your heart when you encounter someone with selfish motivations?
Do you get jaded? Are you tempted to get cold towards God? Are you tempted to be cynical towards people? When someone uses your accomplishments and your success for their own glory? When someone takes more from you than they give? When someone only pays attention to you when they want something from you? When someone uses you for his or her own personal pleasure? Jesus is teaching us not to become cold and cynical towards God when we encounter selfish people. He’s teaching us not to lose heart in prayer because we give in to a jaded & self-protective heart. He’s saying, “Don’t lose heart!”
#4: I think we lose heart in prayer when we question God’s character… (6-7)
When we begin to question God’s character we begin to subtly believe that God isn’t just or that God doesn’t really love us or that God doesn’t listen to our cries for help. It’s so easy to believe that God will not dispense justice for our suffering at the hands of other sinful people. It’s too easy to reject God’s love rather than truly receive it because we believe God has abandoned us in our deepest hours of pain and suffering. It’s too easy to believe that God doesn’t hear our desperate cries for help when we are struggling with our own sin sickness as well as the sickness of others sin against us. But God is a just God because it’s part of who he is. God does love because it’s part of who he is. God does listen because it’s part of who he is. Jesus is reminding us that God is just… God is love… and God does listen… so that we don’t lose heart in prayer which is why he lays out a contrast between the judge and our heavenly Father.
Look Again At The Contrast Between The Judge & God…
Jesus says, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?” In other words… If you’ve heard this story of this jerk of a judge and your heart is wrestling with that picture then you’re ready to hear about the Father we have in heaven who is nothing like this judge. God is not an unjust judge. God is not an unloving judge. God is not a judge who ignores our cries for help.
In Regards To God Being A Just God…
We may question God’s ability to act righteously towards us when we’ve felt like he’s left us in the midst of painful circumstances of suffering and abuse but the reality (as we learned last week) is that judgment and justice may not be dispensed right now but someday when Christ returns, God will punish the wickedness of all who have sinned and haven’t trusted in Christ because only then can justice be served. God is the God of justice because he is just. If we are to be a people who do not lose heart in prayer we must trust that God is just.
In Regards To God’s Love…
We may question and even reject the notion of God’s neverending… unearnable… steadfast love but just because we question his love doesn’t mean his love towards us changes. Jesus says that God will “give justice to his elect.” He does this by asking a rhetorical question… almost a sarcastic question… and he does this to draw our attention to the truth that God is love. He does it when he uses the word “elect”. The word elect simply means chosen. Everyone who has believed and will believe in the message of the cross of Christ has been chosen by God as objects of his love poured out upon us since before the foundations of the earth while we were yet to sin. (Though we don’t have time or space to unpack this doctrine thoroughly I would turn you to Romans 7-9 and especially chapter 8 for further study on the doctrine of election) But basically the truth we have to be set free with today is the truth that God has chosen us who have believed and who will believe upon the work of Christ to be adopted out of slavery to the bondage of sin and the penalty of sin which is death and wrath to become sons and daughters of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Spirit as he awakens our dead hearts and breathes new life into them through the message of the gospel. God is love and the truth that he is love is made obvious in the doctrine of election and this doctrine helps us not to lose heart in prayer.
In Regards To God Not Listening To Our Cries For Help…
I think we question God’s perfect character in terms of his ability to listen to and hear our cries for help because we forget that he is perfect. He is just. He is love. We forget and question these things because we move our attention off of him as the object of our satisfaction and onto our problems and our suffering and our difficulty and we stop crying out to him day and night. In other words… we begin to believe that our satisfaction is found in our prayers being answered rather than finding our satisfaction in the presence of God. We have to be reminded that God is all-seeing, all-knowing, all-present and all-powerful. God is not lacking in any way… God does listen to our cries and knowing that helps us not to lose heart in prayer.
What happens in your heart when you begin to question God’s ability to act rightly, love completely & listen…
Do you find yourself losing heart? Do you struggle to believe in God’s goodness and rightness because you believe he has abandoned you or worse that he has caused the harm and abuse and suffering that you’ve experienced? Do stiff-arm or reject his unending love because you believe he has acted hatefully towards you? Do you get discouraged because you’ve begun to believe that God must not be listening to your cries for help when you don’t experience the freedom or the change you expected to experience? Jesus is teaching us today not to lose heart by questioning God’s justice, his love or his ability to listen. He’s simply teaching us not to lose heart!
#5: I think we lose heart in prayer when we question God’s timing… (7-8)
When we begin to question God’s timing what we’re really doing is giving into the belief that our timing is better than his. And the reality is that “with God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day”. In other words God is sovereign (in control) of every moment and his timeline is often very different from ours. But the problem is that when God doesn’t act the way we want him to or in the timing that we want him to then we begin to question God’s timing. This is why Jesus reminds us that God will not delay his plan for quick justice.
Look Again At What Jesus Says About Quick Justice…
Jesus says, in regards to God, “Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice speedily”. Now I know that when Jesus says this it can be too easy to glance over it and give a half-hearted head-nod in vague agreement with the truth that God has his own timing and he will execute quick justice. But let me just propose that I think our sense of good timing must be aligned with our growth in faith. In other words… I think we actually grow in our faith, as we trust God to act, not in our timing but in his timing. Listen, we cannot give God a flunking grade because he doesn’t act in accordance with our perceived timeline of justice. We can only persevere in our faith and grow in our faith, as we trust him to execute quick justice in accordance with his own timeline and plan since he is God and we are not.
What happens in your heart when you begin to question God’s timing?
Do you struggle with attempting to remove God from his throne because of your mistrust in his timing? Are you tempted to believe that God has failed you? Tempted to believe that God is delaying his plan to somehow punish you? Jesus is teaching us here not to lose heart in prayer because we question God’s timing. He’s encouraging us not to lose heart!
My Conclusion In Regards To Why We Lose Heart In Prayer…
I think that we often lose heart in prayer because we encounter people who don’t fear God or respect people so we get discouraged. We suffer injustice so we wonder where God is. We encounter people with selfish motivations so we get cynical and cold. We question God’s character so we begin to believe that he isn’t just, he doesn’t love us and he doesn’t listen to our cries for help. We question God’s timing because we believe we could do the job better than he does.
Notice The 2 Questions Within This Text…
The question we ask is “why do we lose heart in prayer?” But the question God asks is “are we people of faith?” Look at verse 8 where Jesus says “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” In other words… are you a person of faith? Do you trust God in the midst of discouragement? Are you persevering in your faith amidst suffering and hardship and injustice? Are you repenting of your sinful and cold hearted cynicism towards God and other people? Are you growing in your relationship with God as your righteous and good judge who loves you infinitely and hears every cry for help that comes from your lips? Is the Spirit of God reassuring your heart and your soul of God’s dependability even when you wonder how much more time it will take for Christ to return? The question we must ask is “Are you a person of faith who doesn’t lose heart in prayer?”