Perseverance Through Prayer || Manna for the Mind #354

Luke 18:1

NASB                  Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not become discouraged.

NLT                       One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.

VOICE                He told them a parable, urging them to keep praying and never grow discouraged. The parable went like this:

Fight Using Prayers

What’s a parable? These are stories that were told to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. Jesus used these often for those that were open to understanding while concealing them from those that didn’t care to understand. This parable (the Parable of the Persistent Widow – Luke 18:1-8 NLT) is describing the importance of prayer and persevering. Prayer is all about the importance of constantly communicating with God. Prayer should shape our whole life, not be confirmed to one setting. In the original culture, prayer had certain set times to occur and certain routines to follow. Jesus is trying to advocate a counter-cultural change to be a more continuous and personal relationship with God.

The biggest part of it all, and a main part of what I’ll dive into, is doing this to not be discouraged. The original Jewish people were under Roman occupation, and many were hoping for a day when they would be set free from the occupation. Jesus is encouraging His followers to stay persistent in their prayer routine, believing that God will faithful and will respond in His timing. The call to keep believing is a reminder of the hope and trust believers can have in the promises of God.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How do you keep fighting through prayers in these uncertain times?

The Duality of Prayer

Again, I wanted to discuss the part of discouragement some more, because it is a reality that we will all tend to face from time to time. The Greek word used here is ekkakeó (ek-kak-eh’-o). This is the idea of a spiritual, emotional, and moral fatigue/burn-out that tempts believers to abandonment anything that God has called them to do. This word was used six times in the New Testament, but this is the only usage attributed to Jesus. Jesus is showing casing this as the solution when we feel spiritually exhausted. In all situations, Christians would have seen this as a battleground for their faith.

We’ve all felt that fatigue to care about different things in the world currently. There’s so much chaos, war, violence, arguments, discourse, anxiety, panic, fear, depression, and more ongoing. We have the unfortunate blessing of having access to that at our fingertips thanks to the internet and our devices. We get pushed so much to care about and we tend to care about nothing. We are so often overwhelmed by what’s going on both personally and globally, that it’s so hard to create an emotional connection to something. Prayer can be used to overcome this emotional numbness. Pray can allow us to share everything that is weighing heavy on our heart and having a tough conversation about what is going on and how one can move forward.

On the other end of the spectrum, when people tend to not have any active struggles going on in their life, they can take the struggles of the world and make them their own problems. There’s compassion fatigue that exists within people that tend to have an empathetic mindset. They can become so absorbed in the world’s problems, both intentionally and unintentionally, that they start to make it their own problems. Not saying that this is a bad thing because it can bring great awareness to the world about problems happening around us, but it can also be emotionally exhausting.

This cycles back to the point of prayer is a way that we can unload the problems and concerns that weigh us down to God. God is ultimately in control of what is happening around us, and the more we bring to Him, the more we free ourselves to do the things that He can created us to do. When we pray, and earnestly talk to God, God hears and responds in God’s wisdom and timing. It will not be on our timeline, meaning it may not be immediate, but we have faith that God’s answer may come later, differently, or in ways we don’t expect.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How do you view your prayer life after reading this?

PRAY Action

Hi God! Thank you for being there for me to communicate with. Thank you for listening to everything I have said and not said out loud. The struggles I’m facing can be too much to deal with all at one, combined with the chaos of the world can be overwhelming to the point that I would just want to stay in bed. You didn’t call me to stay in bed, but to be able to go out and spread your message to all the world. Help me to figure out what that looks like. Help me to find the strength, faith, and wisdom to go out and share your love and mercy to everyone I meet. It’s in your name I pray. Amen.

Next slice of manna: Maintain a Prayerful Life || 1 Thessalonians 5:17 || Manna for the Mind #355