Persistent prayers

At the beginning of this week, my sister reached out to me to invite me into a season of prayer with her. I agreed immediately. It’s always a good idea to have someone praying for you regularly. Each morning this week, we texted each other our prayer requests, and then at 10am we both entered into prayer on opposite sides of Florida. 

About midweek we had a check-in phone call and chatted about our philosophies on prayer. My sister mentioned the Persistent Widow, whose pleas were answered by an unjust judge simply because she kept coming back. It’s one of those parables that has always made me think. This parable is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18:

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not lose heart. He said: “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’ For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect of anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’”

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says, And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?” 

A couple Sundays ago, I preached a sermon on the difference between a relational God and a genie God (if you’re wondering, our God is the former). God does not exist for the sole purpose of answering our prayers like a Genie grants wishes. Our God created us to be in relationship with Him, and part of that relationship is sharing our intimate fears, desires, anxieties, and hopes.

The judge in the parable is neither a genie nor relational. He is described as neither a man of faith nor of the people. He just answers the widow’s prayers because he is annoyed with her. Consider how a relational God may respond to this same pleading - a God who loves us and compassionately hears the intimacies of our prayers. This God answers our prayers not out of annoyance but out of the love He has for us. Matthew records another metaphor Jesus uses for prayer in his Gospel:

“Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for bread, would give a stone? Or if the child asked for a fish, would give a snake? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

I believe in the power of prayer, persistently brought to the Divine. I believe in the way prayer moves God’s heart and changes our own. I believe the relational nature of prayer between us and God is a gradual convergence of what we desire and what God desires for us.

I don’t believe God gives us everything we want, but I do believe prayer aligns our wants to God’s. Sometimes explicitly praying for that is a growth opportunity in our prayer life and our relationship with God.

“Lord, we believe you have the power to do all things, and we pray for this specific thing now. However, if it is not your will for this to happen and there is a plan far greater than my own, please change my heart’s desire to align with Your will. Amen.”