October 26, 2022
Author: Pastor Gordon Cook
October 26, 2022
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to
pray and not lose heart. He 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.’ For awhile 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.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the
unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who
cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he
will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man
comes will he find faith on earth?”
Luke 18:1-8
Someone has said this in regard to reading our Bibles and it could
also be applied to praying, “One of the greatest dangers we face as
Christians is that we can no longer get enthusiastic, excited, thrilled
with regard to the means of grace. Familiarity breeds contempt.” We have
all heard that, haven’t we? It shows itself up most frequently in terms
of the private means and ultimately the public means of grace. So we
can go through the motions when it comes to reading our Bibles, and the
same with prayer. It can become sort of a humdrum exercise. It's almost
like we're falling asleep at the switch. We go through the motions and
that's why we constantly need to remind ourselves of the privilege of
prayer.
Prayer is a unique and distinct privilege. Not everybody
can pray. I think everybody thinks they can pray, but not everybody can
pray, not in the Christian way, not in the true way. Not everybody can
go to the Father as the Father, not everybody can go in the name of
Christ, it's a blood bought privilege.
We also could say this,
not everybody has the Holy Spirit, so they can't pray as God's children.
The Spirit of adoption is given to us to enable us to cry out, “Abba
Father.” So that means billions and billions and billions of people
think they are praying when in reality they're not. They're talking to a
god of their own imaginations, and even Jesus warned about a wrong kind
of praying, didn't He, in the Sermon on the Mount? Remember he said,
“Do not pray like the hypocrites,” and then he went on to say, “Do not
pray like the Gentiles,” who have a kind of mumbo jumbo approach to
prayer. They heap up empty praises thinking they might be heard, but in
reality they are not being heard by God. And so only the Christian can
pray in the full sense of that word. It's interesting when Saul of
Tarsus was converted in Acts 9, the first indication we have that he was
converted was that he prayed, “Behold, he prayed.” I am sure he did a
lot of “praying,” but he really wasn't praying, not until after he was
converted. So it's good to remind us brethren, of the awesome privilege
we have when it comes to prayer.
Praying is a mark of a true
child of God. God has no dumb children, they pray. There can be lots of
times where we struggle with prayer, lots of fits and starts, but the
Christian doesn't give up. Some of you have been praying as Christians
for 30 to 40 years; some of you've been coming to prayer meetings for 30
plus years. That's extraordinary. Prayer is not easy, it’s
perseverance; that's what's required.
Going back to the parable
in Luke 18, Jesus gives us a description of that persevering widow
trying to underscore the importance of persevering prayer. And notice
when he closes off that parable with this question (it’s somewhat of a
haunting question), “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He
find faith on earth?”
Jesus is saying, “True faith will show
itself in persevering prayer.” Faith doesn't give up, that's the point
he's making. Even though we have many struggles, difficulties,
challenges, distractions, busyness, etc., the devil doesn't want us to
pray, even our own hearts at times can be militant to prayer.
But we can't give up and if God is your Father, Jesus is your Savior. If
the Holy Spirit indwells you, you won't give up, you can’t give up, the
Christian won't. It's a wonderful evidence of true grace. Again, the
words of Jesus, “The elect cry unto him day and night.”
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