[Prayer for Discouragement]Luke 18:1-8
My name is Minchang Song, and I serve as a book editor at QTM. The other day, I stumbled across a note from a young man who said, 'Im having a hard time with devotion,' and it really resonated with me. Since our church is a bathhouse church that pushes each other through the times of sin for salvation, I coined the phrase 'our commitment is spiritual washing.' Love and marriage require commitment, and I wonder if the reason why the current generation is afraid of marriage and having children is because they have not seen that commitment from us, the older generation. Lets use the parable of the bitter widow in todays text to consider how we can offer our commitment without being discouraged.
First, we need to know exactly who were praying for.
The original word for 'discouragement' means 'overcome by evil,' which is to lose hope and give up because you are overcome by evil. The dictionary definition of discouragement is 'the state of being brokenhearted because something you hoped for did not happen.Jesus knew that I and you would get discouraged. Its not easy to not lose heart while waiting for the invisible kingdom of God because of the visible kingdoms of this world. And yet, He says, Pray always and do not lose heart and He includes the story of the unjust judge in His prayer to emphasize that God is not an unjust judge.The reason we lose heart is because we are praying to the wrong person and misunderstanding God. The reason we can pray and not lose heart is because God is faithful.
I struggled with my father, who was like an unjust judge. As a child, I prayed countless times in my alcove to stop this war and sorrow, but because I didnt know what God was like, I misunderstood Him as someone who didnt listen to my prayers, and I had the dreadful thought that I would reach for the hammer in my toolbox and end this fight. One day, as I was idly holding the hammer on the porch, my neighbor, who heard the fighting downstairs and came upstairs, saw me and cried out in tears. After some time, I realized that this was an incident where Jesus came to me in the form of an old lady when I was unable to pray.
Second, it should be answered with redemption, not vengeance.
The widow was the weakest of the weak and subject to exploitation, yet she persists in hassling the unjust judge. If she wanted to ask for vengeance, she would have been better off looking for someone else to avenge her, not an unjust judge. In other words, God is not the one who avenges our personal vendettas. The purpose of answered prayer is not to settle our grudges. The purpose of our prayers is to see Gods will done, Gods kingdom come, and to know and follow Jesus as the true Messiah, the one who died on the cross for me, who deserved to die for my sins. Until then, we must be persistent, pray, and never give up on answers.
When I was leading the senior youth 'Preliminary Shepherds,' a man who had a troubled father like me said that sharing with his enemies took time, and he confessed that the more he realized the redemptive history, the more he loved his father. I, too, was prescribed to 'be your fathers shepherd, hug your father, kiss your fathers face,' and so on, and I realized that the more I realized the redemptive history, the more I loved my father deeply.
There was a case where I recognized that I was an unjust judge. I have a brother-in-law whose father died when he was a child, and whose mother died when he was a teenager, leaving a huge age gap between them. He needed a fatherly presence, and I was so enraged when I saw him wandering off to play video games and assaulting his sisters to get money to go to a fish restaurant that I beat him for about an hour. His head swelled up and I rushed him to the hospital to drain the blood, but I didnt know what was wrong with him because I didnt have a community to interpret the Word. Then I saw my high school-aged son, and I had a very hard time because he overlapped with my brother-in-law, and I wondered if I was the one who had prevented his salvation, leaving him with nowhere to turn, like a widow. That was the beginning of my interpretation of the redemption story, realizing that I was a sinner for holding a grudge against my father, who was like an unjust judge. He constantly teaches us that if we go to the ranch and ask to release our grudges, this is what we must do for our salvation. One day, the Word says today, it will happen that when the redemptive cry is heard, the redemptive response will come to us.
Third, we should demonstrate persistent faith by mourning our salvation.
The Lord asks his disciples, 'When the Son of Man comes again, will he find faith in the world (v. 8)?'He asks this question to encourage them to keep the faith and not lose heart until Jesus returns. Our persistent prayer is based on Gods faithfulness to answer our prayers, and the 'elect' (v. 7) are those who are mourning over their sin, which is me and you today.
A few years ago, my brother-in-law brought my niece and nephew to worship for a while, and it wasnt long before I heard the news of his separation and divorce. I was indifferent to the SOS from my brother-in-laws family, a widow with nowhere to turn.My wife was devastated but not discouraged and kept in touch, showing interest, and finally my brother-in-law contacted me.Through the pastors sermon, 'What is your request?', I began to hear the words, 'Do not lose heart', remembering that when our family was also in a disadvantageous situation, God had performed a work of salvation every time, and remembering this, God is telling me and you today to come to a faithful God and pray persistently for Gods will to be done, not with moderate devotion for our comfort, but with persistence so that we will not lose heart.
God is looking for one person who is mourning for my sin. The reason we are discouraged is because we fail to apply for real salvation, because we are committed elsewhere. There is no greater commitment than the cross. May I and you, following Jesus, who showed us the love of the cross, show persistent prayer and undaunted faith with mourning for salvation, in the name of the Lord.
