Pray until something happens
“And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”Luke 18:1
Reflection
Jesus told the story of a widow — the most unprotected figure of that society — before a corrupt judge who "feared not God, neither regarded man". She had no money for bribes, no influence for pressure, no lawyer to argue. She had a single weapon: persistence. And with it she won: the unjust judge gave in "lest by her continual coming she weary me". And Jesus crowns it with the most comforting logic possible: if EVEN an evil judge answers the one who insists, how much more the just Father, who LOVES those who cry out to Him?
Note that Luke explains the purpose of the parable before even telling it — a very rare case: "that men ought always to pray, and NOT TO FAINT". Jesus knew exactly where our prayer dies: not in total unbelief, but in weariness. We pray fervently for a week, a month, a year... and the answer does not come, and the prayer shrinks, until it becomes embarrassed silence. Giving up on prayer is the politest way of giving up on God.
But why does God delay, if He can answer instantly? The parable does not explain everything, but the Bible gives clues: there are answers that depend on invisible processes (Daniel prayed 21 days while the answer was already on the way from day one); there are answers that require our preparation (receiving too early would spoil them); and there is the transformation that insistence itself works — whoever persists in prayer changes along the way, and sometimes THE CHANGE was the answer. God’s delay is never neglect; it is engineering.
Jesus’ final question in the parable is the most provocative: "when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?". Faith, there, looks like a persistent widow: the one who returns to heaven’s courtroom every day with the same case. Which prayer have you abandoned out of weariness — the child, the healing, the marriage, someone’s conversion? Reopen the case today. The widow had no promise at all and insisted before an evil judge; you have ALL the promises before a good Father. Pray until something happens. And if it takes long? Pray more.
Prayer
Just Father, forgive the prayers I abandoned out of weariness. Today I reopen the cases: I bring You the old causes again, with the widow’s persistence and a child’s confidence. You are no unjust judge — You are Father. And I will not faint. Amen.
Put it into practice
Identify ONE prayer you abandoned out of weariness and resume it today — and set a daily reminder to insist on it for the next 30 days.
To reflect on
What request did you stop making not because God said "no", but because you stopped asking?
Bible text: King James Version (public domain).