Always Pray and Don't Lose Heart - Luke 18:1-8

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[Luke 18:1-8]

Always Pray and Don’t Lose Heart

“Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” [Luke 18:1]

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Those who ask receive [Matthew 7:8]. Jesus told you a parable today to the effect that He wants you to be the squeaky wheel in His ear. To always pray and not lose heart. When I pray, will God answer in my favor?

I.

Jesus said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’” [Luke 18:2-3]

The judge was unjust, and the plaintiff was a widow. In those days, a widow might have no one in life to turn to. And she might not expect her testimony to carry much weight in court. Nevertheless, she went to the judge continually, crying for help against an adversary who was doing her some wrong – we don’t know what.

We don’t know what evil she suffered, but we do know who our adversary is: “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” [1 Peter 5:8].

The devil plots a hundred plans daily to bring evil against you. The devil is the tempter who makes plans daily to get you to lose trust in God. To doubt God’s good heart toward you. To convince you He’s angry.

The devil, as tempter, provokes your flesh to bring your mind and imagination down evil paths – paths of lust; or of anger and retribution toward others; or of money-centered daydreams.

The devil, your adversary, is the slanderer – plotting and putting stumbling blocks in your path for you to say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, that will sully your reputation. The devil doesn’t want God’s name to be holy in this world through your good life but to be profaned in this world by your failures.

The devil is your adversary in this world who roars and roars, but can be resisted by mere men, women, and children and loses his battles – his plots are foiled – because he is already defeated, and you have a powerful hero who hears you.

All the devil can do is try to get you to stop calling upon God in prayer, for some reason. Doubt. Indifference. Busy-ness. Because he can’t win against God in your life.

The woman in the parable keeps that judge in her life. She continually calls out to him, showing up at his courtroom everyday, I’m sure. If she has to annoy that judge into helping her, she’ll do it. It’s the judge's job to help, so she is bold and confident in her asking for it.

II.

“For a while he 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.’” [Luke 18:4-5]

Whether it’s a courtroom or customer service, you know the power of continuing to ask, continuing to insist. The point of the Lord’s parable is this: If even unjust and indifferent judges on earth will help because of your much asking, how much more will the just Judge of all the earth come to your aid when you ask?

“Hear what the unrighteous judge says,” Jesus says, “And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night?” [Luke 18:6-7]

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” [Matthew 7:11]

For this reason, we wrestle with God. We say with Jacob, who wrestled with God all night for the very blessing God had already before promised him, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” [Genesis 32:26]         

Like with Jacob, it is God’s will to work His promises in our life through our wrestling with Him in prayer. God came down and had Jacob wrestle with Him as if in a ring. God’s will is for you to engage Him in the same way, wrestling those things out of Him which He has long promised.

God’s desire is that you hold Him to His promises in your fervent prayers: “You have promised, Lord. I will not let You go until You bless me, until You do what You have promised.” This wrestling is for your benefit. It sharpens and strengthens your faith. It draws you closer to His face.

You are God’s elect – He has chosen you in Baptism. You are His. You have His name on you. “Will not God”, who is good and always keeps His promises, give an answer “to His elect.”

God will “give justice”, which is a reference, here, not to His judgement but to His saving work on the cross of Christ. That’s God’s promise. All that saving work which Jesus did for you – and He did it for you – by His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead – He will apply that saving work to you, in every small way and new struggle, and in the ultimate way.

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” [Romans 8:32]

III.

“Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them – He will deliver them – speedily.” [Luke 18:7-8]

Nothing in all creation can stop God from answering your prayers. And your sins are forgiven. Forgiven by the death of His very Son. You are declared “His” by the living, risen Savior who is even now your intercessor, speaking to God for you in heaven. The very one who carried your sin and died in your place now lives and speaks for you.

God will hear you as your prayers come to Him through the name of your Savior. But the adversary would have you doubt because of length of time. But hear what God’s Word says:

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you” [2 Peter 3:9]. “Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” [2 Peter 3:8]. God is not slow, but always answers at the right time. And once He does answer, then we see that the wait was short.

IV.

The squeaky wheel does get the grease. And your Savior Jesus has told you this parable so that you would always pray to Him and not lose heart. Now, lastly, let’s hear our Savior’s final verse:

“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

Jesus’ final answer to our prayers is that He returns. But between now and then, “the time is coming” – and now is – “when people will not endure sound teaching” – the world never did, but now even those who claim His name and the name of “Church”, increasingly, will have “itching ears.”

“They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” – picking the messengers that will agree with them, instead of hearing the Scriptures as “breathed out by God” [2 Timothy 3:16] – “and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” [2 Timothy 4:3-4]

When Jesus returns, will He find any who still hear His life-giving Word of Scripture – all that He has commanded [Matthew 28:20] and all that He has promised?

And will there still be on earth those calling out to Him as their Savior when He comes again “to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him”? [Hebrews 9:28]

The answer is, He will. Yes. Few or many, He will answer all who are His with His coming. New life. New you and me. No longer sick. No longer sinners. New heaven and new earth. He will lose none of His own, and if there were just one left, He would come for them. He finishes this race for us all. He returns.

The point is that you must rely on Him, not on yourself. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand” [John 10:27-28] – To the very end, the sheep are safe with their Shepherd.

So, “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” [Psalm 27:14]. Pray always, and you don’t ever need to lose heart. Amen.