Yesterday and today, Gordon and I prayed for our very treasured adult children and grandchildren; we love them too much to stop. Truth is, we have seen concrete things in their lives that are mega encouraging to us; yes we have seen God at work and our children follow the road of glad obedience. This evening it was my turn and highest honour to pray at our Free English Cafe during the voluntary Bible Study, while others facilitated and students followed the Bible portion. Erik, Tendry and I had a quiet, happy confidence in His presence, knowing He who gave us His Son, in whom is tied up eternal life - invites us to come into His presence, before His face, knowing we are the apple of His eye - with faith and ask anything! That's just what we did: asked for jobs, improved English, and that they will see Jesus in the Bible and find the life He offers.
So here's that feisty, persistent even insistent widow - like a dog with a bone! Is this us in prayer not to a reluctant, tight-fisted, closed-heart Father - everything but!
A young preacher from Eastbourne, England writes:Luke 18:1-8Notice the position of the widow. She has no husband in a patriarchal society in which men ruled and the weak were often overlooked. She has no advocate in an uncaring and unfair legal system. She is desperately weak, but also incredibly bold.Can you imagine her?She writes a letter, 78 pages long, including supporting documents. She hears nothing so she writes again, this time 53 pages long with new photographic evidence. She follows it up with phone calls – 4 or 5 times a day. Still nothing. So she buys a computer and despite her advanced years learns how to email. She floods his inbox with messages. She gets no reply. So every morning she waits outside his front door and walks him to work. ‘Have you dealt with my case yet? Why haven’t you dealt with my case? Where’s my justice? I demand justice.’ After months of persistence, his in-tray topples over, his email has crashed and he daren’t answer the phone because he knows exactly who it’s going to be. She’s the persistent widow. Or as the old King James bible translated it – she’s the importunate widow. The insistent, petitioning, never-give-up widow. This woman is Jesus’ object lesson in prayer. Does that mean that God is like this unjust judge? No, Jesus is contrasting the judge with God.The judge (v2 & v4) cares nothing about God or men. Our Father cares desperately. Verse 7 – He calls them His “chosen ones.” His children who are CHOICE in His eyes – we are His delight, His pride and joy, His chosen ones. God is so much better than this judge.And we are so much more privileged than this woman. It would be easy to think that Jesus just wants us to compare ourselves with this woman. But this is a parable of CONTRASTS. We are meant to CONTRAST the judge with God. And we’re meant to contrast this woman with ourselves.
For the rest of Glen's sermon at "Christ the Truth", please go right here.
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Prayer fuelled by the Bible - here.
