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ALWAYS PRAY AND DO NOT LOSE HEART.
In
the name + of Jesus.
Whenever there is crime, civil unrest, or
war, people will say, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims.” Others mock those sentiments. They say that thoughts and prayers do nothing
about the evils that occur. This mockery
is an attack on our Lord. It suggests
that he is incapable of doing anything or that he is disinterested in doing
anything. Of course, whoever does not
believe the word of God regards prayers the same as carrying around a lucky
rabbit’s foot. (Maybe you remember
those things from the 1970’s.)
St. Paul had high regard for thoughts and
prayers. He began most of his epistles
with this sentiment: “I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers,
because I hear about your love and faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus
and for all the saints” (Philemon 1:4-5).
Paul kept the people he had served in his thoughts, and he prayed
for them regularly. Why? Because prayers are significant and
effective. Our prayers serve as both a
confession and an act of worship. By
them, we confess whom we honor as God above all. By them, we worship our Lord as the one in
whom we trust for all good things. When
we pray, we take all our concerns to the Lord to act according to his infinite
wisdom, mercy, and power. Do not be
discouraged when unbelievers mock the thoughts and prayers of God’s
people. Rather, always pray and do not
lose heart.
Do you know who else had high regard for
prayer? Our Lord, Jesus Christ. “Jesus told (his disciples) a parable
about the need to always pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). Jesus spoke about a judge who did not care
about God or people. He also mentioned a
widow who implored the judge for justice.
She had no one to help her. No
one else would speak up for her. Her
only hope was a judge who did not care about anyone but himself. His motives were self-centered. Even when he gave this woman the justice she
demanded, he did it for his own benefit rather than hers. “I will give her justice so that she will
not wear me out with her endless pleading” (Luke 18:5).
If this were Aesop’s Fables, the moral of
the story would be “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Children know this. They will beg incessantly, “Can I have
this? Can I have this? Can I have this? Can I have this? Can I have this?” Eventually, beleaguered parents say,
“Fine! Have it!” They do it because they are annoyed by the
begging and want their children to be quiet.
But this is not the point of the parable, as if we must wear God down
before he will do anything.
Jesus taught us to pray to our
Father. He is not a deadbeat Dad who has
abandoned his family. He does not regard
you as a burden to be freed from. He is
your good and merciful Father in heaven.
He created you and sustains you day by day. He
even supplies more than you need so you get to enjoy variety, beauty, and
bounty. He loves you. He cares for you. He is interested in you. Most importantly, he invested the life and
death of his only begotten Son to make you his own dear child. Therefore, he wants you to entrust him with
whatever it is that bothers you or scares you, whatever threatens you or tempts
you, or whatever you need or want. And
since these issues never go away, it is good to always pray and not lose heart.
Jesus noted that the judge who did not
care about other people did finally cave in because of the woman’s constant
pleading. Now hear Jesus’ conclusion: “Will
not God give justice to his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and
night? Will he put off helping them? I tell you that he will give them justice
quickly” (Luke 18:7-8). Since God
the Father does care about you, he will listen to your prayers. He will take up your cause. He will do what serves for your eternal good.
Always pray and do not lose heart. Do not lose heart over what seems like the
Lord’s slowness to act. The Lord knows
what is going on in this world. In fact,
he warned you that these things were coming.
The Bible teaches us: “In the last days there will be terrible
times. For people will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemous, disobedient to
their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, not able to reconcile with others,
slanderous, without self-control, savage, haters of what is good, treacherous,
reckless, puffed up with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
holding to an outward form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
If you become anxious because you see
these things unfolding right in front of your eyes, do not lose heart. Our Lord knows the kind of society we live
in. Some places, of course, are worse
than others, but no place is perfect. What
you are seeing is nothing new, and it will not cease as long as the earth
endures. When you see such wickedness,
there is no place to turn but to our Lord.
That is why we always pray. Our
Lord told us that kingdoms will rise and fall, but the kingdom of our God
endures forever. So, always pray and do
not lose heart.
The widow hounded the judge for justice because
she was being wronged. To her credit,
she did not take matters into her own hands to execute the kind of justice that
she thought was right. She turned to the
one who had authority to carry out appropriate justice. Understand your role in bringing justice to
the world. God does not call on you to
fix everything as you see fit. Lawmakers,
judges, and police are all established as proper authorities to execute
justice.
What can you do? You can protest without being destructive or
disruptive to others’ lives. You can
write letters, appeal to congressmen, campaign, and run for office. Parents are to discipline their children so
they know right from wrong. You can confess
God’s word and let that word influence people to turn from wickedness and to
promote righteousness. Laws may enforce
behavior, but only God’s mercy and love will change hearts. So, if you want to see hearts changed, God’s
word will do far more than legislation ever will. Pray for courage to confess that word, to
stand on it, and to live up to it. And do
not lose heart when others won’t.
We all think that we have a handle on what
is just. Rarely do we know the whole
story. Sure, that guy was rude and
insulting. But who knows? Maybe he is consumed by thoughts about his
sick child more than being polite. Your
sense of justice may say, “He should suffer for his rudeness.” But perhaps he is already suffering
enough. Rarely is our sense of justice
free from bias. We want justice that
favors us, not always what is right. That
is why it is best to call upon God to carry out a righteous judgment. Always pray and do not lose heart.
We want God to make things right. We want God to treat people fairly, thinking
that all people deserve better than they are getting. But what if God were fair with everyone? This is what the Lord says, “There is
surely not a righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin”
(Ecclesiastes 7:20). To exercise
justice fairly, our Lord must convict and condemn everyone; for we all fail to
do the good God demands of us. We all
have done the evil that God forbids us to do.
To demand justice from God is to demand our own damnation; for that is
what our sin has earned us. Our sin is
the reason our sense of justice is biased.
It is the reason we assume that our assessment of right and wrong
is what God must do rather than aligning our sense of right and wrong with his
word. It is the reason we are more
interested in vengeance than righteousness.
The Lord is a righteous judge. He takes his word seriously and will judge
everyone according to it. All who are
guilty will pay the price. And yet our
Lord desires to be merciful. He does not
delight in damning anyone. How can our
Lord be both just and merciful? He
fulfills this through Jesus Christ. The
Father sent Jesus to bear the guilt of all mankind. The Bible states, “God made him, who did
not know sin, to become sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus accepted accountability for all the
good we failed to do and for all the evil we have done. Then he paid the price.
While he hung from the cross, Jesus cried
out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46)? To be forsaken by God is to be cut off
from all that is good, from every blessing, from life and mercy and hope. Because he bore the guilt of every sinner,
Jesus was cut off from all that is good, from every blessing, from life and
mercy and hope. So, justice was
done. The guilty one was condemned. Since all your sin has been taken away, you are
not condemned. You have been declared,
“Not guilty.” And this is justice,
too. For God will not condemn you for
sins that have already been paid for.
So, when you pray that God would be just, then pray that God would honor
Jesus’ sufferings and death. Pray that
he would be merciful to sinners. Rather
than be consumed by what God should do with the wicked, rejoice that God has
delivered you from all wickedness. Always
pray and do not lose heart.
Jesus concludes his parable with a rather
disturbing question: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the
earth” (Luke 18:8)? Jesus knows that
many will grow weary and impatient. He
knows that many will give up praying and will lose heart. Many will figure it is better to enjoy what
you can in this world of sin than to patiently wait for the glories of
heaven. Those glories we don’t see, but
the indulgent pleasures of the world are presented before us daily. Will those temptations be too alluring? Will instant gratification feel better than
patient endurance? Will the Son of Man
find faith when he comes again to judge the living and the dead?
Do not lose heart because God is not
acting immediately to destroy the wicked.
Do not lose heart because God is granting more time for people to
repent. Do not lose heart because you
are confusing God’s patience with inattentiveness. And so that you do not lose heart, the Lord
has given you his word and prayer. In prayer,
you speak to God about your fears and frustrations, your anxiety and your
anger, your trails and temptations. You
get to call upon the king of heaven and earth to hear and act, knowing that he
does, indeed, care for you and works for your eternal good. And God has entrusted you with his word where
he speaks to you. The Lord assures you
that he lives and reigns over all things.
He speaks tenderly with compassion and mercy. He directs your attention not to a dying
world but to everlasting life, not to the wickedness of men but to the goodness
of Jesus.
This world will always have its share of evils and injustice. We can pray for relief and for mercy in the midst of all of it. But finally, the Church prays, “Come, Lord Jesus.” He is our refuge and our hope. Only Jesus will bring eternal freedom from all wickedness. We keep God’s promises in our thoughts. We always pray, “Lord, have mercy.” In this way, we will not lose heart.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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