If you’ve prayed about something –or someone—for years and seem to see no results, you might understand why I compare prayer to riding a stationary bicycle. We’re pedaling hard, but we seem to be getting nowhere.
In Luke 18, Jesus taught His disciples about prayer using the Parable of the Persistent Widow. Though I have no desire to be a widow (I’ve made my husband promise to let me go to Jesus first), I would love to be described as persistent. (Some might say that’s one thing I could go ahead and check off my bucket list.)
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1
Jesus provides two words of instruction regarding prayer in Luke 18:1:
- Always pray
- Not give up
At first glance, we might assume that Jesus is simply repeating Himself for added emphasis. Aren’t both points saying essentially the same thing using different words? I thought so, too, until I checked in with our kind and gentle teacher. The Holy Spirit brought some added illumination to me as I pondered and prayed.
Always Pray
This doesn’t suggest a morning or evening prayer, but a consistent walking (or pedaling) in a spirit of prayer. I think of it as a continual conversation with my Lord. This is not just prayer-walking or prayer-pedaling, it is prayer living. It challenges me to redeem my thought life—to be praying as I go through my day. Mindless tasks such as loading the dishwasher, folding the laundry, or driving to pick up a child can be transformed into time to pray for those I love, pray for guidance for myself, and pray that God is glorified in it all. I’m finding that I’m really not “too busy to pray.”
As I send up those “arrow prayers” to Jesus, I find that He is faithful to stir up my heart and mind. He provides an appropriate response to others. He provides practical solutions to the decisions I need to make: how to discipline a child, how to organize my day, how to remedy a sticky situation.
A woman of God leans into God for the big, as well as the small, decisions, responses, and actions that make up her day to day life.
To always pray also suggests that I must keep coming back to God with the same request. If you are like me, there is something or someone you have prayed about for years, having little faith that God will bring about change. It is easy for a prayer to become a mindless chant, a repeated refrain—words uttered by our mouths, but having no connection to our hearts.
Lord, reveal those prayers that my mouth speaks, but my heart does not echo. Stir up my heart to ask – and to keep asking –with passion and pleading, with faith and focus. Delight me, surprise me, bless me with Your answers in Your way and in Your perfect time.
Not give up
The rules of courtesy, human pride, and self-consciousness lead many of us to ask once…perhaps twice. Pride, self, and human methods are cast aside as a woman of God –a true believer and follower of Christ – recklessly, wholeheartedly, repeatedly casts her burden upon the Lord. To ask, to keep asking, to never give up says much about her faith, her expectant heart, and her confidence in God.
In the parable found in Luke 18, the persistent widow keep coming to the judge “who neither feared God nor cared about men.” She finally wore him down and he doled out justice in her case. If this ungodly judge would finally answer, how much more can we expect our holy, kind, and perfect God to answer our pleas?
To give up is human; it is expected; it is logical. But being a woman of God means that I am called to walk in the opposite spirit—to do the unexpected and to sometimes do what the world sees as illogical. To keep asking is divine, counter-cultural, and perhaps embarrassing. It is also the most powerful, Christ-honoring, and humbling action we can take.
To ask and to keep asking demonstrates my inability to fix what is broken. It reveals my complete dependence upon Him who is able.
God, in what area (relational, medical, or financial), for what person or situation, for what decision, do I need to “not give up?” Stir up my heart to keep pedaling. As I wait for the answer, teach me patience and perseverance. Teach me humility and hope. Enable me to depend upon you. Build my trust. Give me an expectant heart. Change me into a woman of great faith.
The Holy Spirit has reminded me today to not give up in these specific areas:
- Lydia to be healed of juvenile diabetes
- The salvation of extended family members
- Committed Christian spouses for each of my children
Each of these requests float on and off my prayer list. They keep resurfacing, as other prayers are answered and then forgotten. Each request may not bring an answer today or tomorrow or next week, but that does not change my responsibility to keep praying. Because of the power found in the gospel of Jesus Christ, hope floats to the surface along with these on-going requests.
As you and I keep prayer-pedaling, we might find we are actually getting somewhere after all.
With all glory to Jesus—the ultimate life preserver and eternal life-saver!
Photo Attribution: Posted with permission from Dawn Olsen, http://theloveofeloquence.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html
Copyright 2011 Laura Macfarlan
