When it comes to spiritual disciplines like prayer it is so easy to beat ourselves up about how slack or forgetful we might be. So when Jesus tells His disciples a story to fuel their persistence in prayer what we find is not a guilt trip or beat down, but rather it is a story of an unrighteous judge and a poor widow. As Jonny Lush unpacks this story we find a stunning encouragement to pray.
Luke 18:1-8
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 a while 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?”