Prayer

        Jesus sometimes taught in parables.  Parables are like “word pictures” of today.  He taught scriptural principles by stories to help us understand the application.   In these two parables Jesus is talking about prayer.  First of all, in Luke 18, verse 1 Jesus says, Men always ought to pray and not lose heart, or don’t give up! I think the important point here is not the how to pray but the WHY to pray.  In  verse 6 Jesus explains that if the unjust judge, one who neither fears God nor cares about people gave in to this widow because she was driving him crazy with her constant requests (NLT) how much MORE  will God, a just God, who loves people give to us who ask Him.  In fact, He goes on to say in verse 8 that God will not only give, but He will do it speedily.  The NLT says, “Will he keep putting them off? (NO!)  I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! 

      In Luke 11, Jesus is basically saying the same thing.  He just refers to a friend instead of the unjust judge. Your friend can be persuaded, not for your friendship’s sake but because you won’t give up, not because he cares about you, not because he wants what’s best for you but because you are persistent.  Again, the point is not the persistence, it is that if your friend will do it, God will do it better!!  He says, ASK – For everyone who asks receives, Seek – he who seeks finds, Knock – to him who knocks it will be opened.

      You may be able to persuade others, but God doesn’t have to be persuaded, He desires to give good gifts to His children!  He says, your friends, your father CANNOT compare to the good gifts He wants to give to those who ask Him.

God loves you, He cares for you, He wants good things for you!  Pray, Ask, Seek, and you WILL find, if you don’t give up!

      

Parable of the Woman and the Judge

18 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men aalways ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor 1regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 2‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, byet because this widow troubles me I will 3avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ”

Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And cshall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you dthat He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

Parable of the Persistent Friend

And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

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