Have you ever found yourself frustrated with your prayer life? Have you ever prayed relentlessly only to find that the result you prayed for didn’t happen? Have you ever been tempted to give up prayer altogether?
Prayer is one of the most important actions we can do as Christian people, but it can also be one of the most challenging and frustrating.
Whether we pray for ourselves, our loved ones, or for justice and peace in our world, we feel the sting of seeing our prayers unrealized. Words cannot adequately express how difficult this can be.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a parable to teach the disciples to” pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). Unlike other parables where the explanation seems hidden, Jesus tells us the correct interpretation of his parable right from the start.
The parable’s aim is to inspire, rally, and encourage. We are to be stubbornly faithful in believing that God hears our prayers and will respond. The parable, therefore, illustrates the importance of persistence in our prayers and the promise of God’s swift response.
Is God the Unjust Judge?
The parable seems straightforward. As the judge hears the petition of the widow, so God hears our prayers and petitions. The difficulty of this parable lies in the fact that the judge is a horrible, faithless, and uncaring person.
Jesus doesn’t hide that fact. Jesus sets the stage right away. “In a certain town, there was a judge, who neither feared God nor cared about people” (Luke 18:2). In fact, the parable is often referred to as the parable of the unjust judge.
The drama of this parable consists of the fact that a widow persistently comes to the judge with a legitimate complaint. The judge chooses to do nothing.
In fact, Jesus says that he does nothing “for some time” (18:3). The judge ignores the widow’s plight, hoping that she will get tired of her complaint and cease coming.
She does not. The widow is persistent. She is bold and feisty. She does not give up. Thus, whenever this parable is not called the Parable of the Unjust Judge, it is called the Parable of the Persistent Widow.
The widow will not take no for an answer. Eventually, wearied by the widow’s persistence, the judge grants her justice, although this is only so that she would stop bothering him and not because he believes in her cause.
Herein lies the challenge. Is Jesus describing God as a heavenly judge who is bothered by our prayers? Does God only grant our requests to make us go away?
No. This is not what Jesus is saying. Importantly, there was a common way of Rabbinic teaching called qal-va-homer, or “from lesser to greater.” This pedagogical format was used to heighten the truth being conveyed.
Essentially, if something was to be true for a lesser thing, then it was to also true for the greater thing. This is the technique that Jesus employs in this parable.
The rationale is as follows: if an unjust, horrible, despicable, unrighteous judge would grant the widow’s request, although reluctantly, how much more would God, whose heart is lovingly directed toward us, hear and respond to our prayers?
Jesus says, “Hear what the unjust says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?” (Luke 18:7).
The whole point of the parable is that God is not like the unjust judge! God is not hard-hearted toward us. God loves us and longs to respond to our prayers.
Do Our Prayers Bother God?
If we picture God as an unjust judge, then it follows that our prayers will be viewed as being bothersome to the Lord. We will believe that our petitions are an annoyance and that God would rather us not come to Him in prayer.
Really? Is this what Jesus is teaching about prayer? Does the parable tell us that we simply need to pester God into prayer-granting submission? If the squeaky wheel gets the oil, then our task in prayer is to be the most annoying wheel we can be!
This is not what Jesus teaches about prayer, yet, unfortunately, some believe this to be the case. In fact, some pastors even preach this!
Some suggest that if you don’t receive what you want in prayer, then you simply haven’t prayed enough. One needs to be like the persistent widow and make God hear and respond.
This is the test of faith; it is proclaimed. Yet such a message is gut-wrenching to people going through a hard time, injustice, or illness. Imagine telling someone dying of cancer that they are not cured because they are not bothering God enough?
This is a wrong interpretation of the parable. Jesus is not saying that our prayers are an annoyance to the Lord. In fact, God delights to hear our prayers. An important element in the parable is that it is a widow who comes before the judge.
In ancient times, widows were a certain group of people that God particularly cared for by God. The Book of Deuteronomy, for example, describes Yahweh as defending “the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and [loving] the foreigner residing among you” (10:18).
It is significant, then, that the petitioner in the parable represents the people for whom God is particularly concerned. The point is that God wants to hear our prayers; God wants to respond.
It is because we have a Lord who is faithful to hear and respond that Jesus urges us not to lose heart in our prayers.
Even though we may not see the satisfaction of our prayers right away, we should not think that we’ve been abandoned or forgotten by God. If the unrighteous judge would vindicate the persistent widow, then God, the righteous judge overall, will undoubtedly respond to our petitions.
The Promised Answer
How, then, do we handle the times wherein our prayers are frustrating or dry? How do we cope when we do not see the realization of what we pray for? We, of course, can’t deny how hard this is.
Yet our inability to see God’s response does not mean that God has forsaken us. God is active in our lives, and whether we are aware of the activity or not, God responds to our prayers. This is the promise of the parable.
We must see this parable in the context of Christ’s journey to the cross. Ultimately, the deepest response to our prayers is always Christ’s own self-giving and love. Jesus stands beside us as we make our petitions.
Furthermore, Scripture affirms that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Romans 8:26). Jesus doesn’t shout answers from celestial clouds afar, he comes to us.
The cross is the full and total answer to our prayers, for it is on the cross where Jesus enters the suffering, violence, and injustice of life. Jesus is never sheltered from these realities but takes them into himself so that out of this incarnation, he may secure redemption for all.
Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, therefore, are the ultimate answer to all our petitions. While this may not stop us from being frustrated with our prayer lives from time to time, this does give us hope. God listens to our prayers; God hears our cries; God responds.
So don’t give up. Don’t lose heart. Pray, and like the persistent widow, pray boldly.
For further reading:
What Is Prayer? Why Do We Pray?
What Can We Learn about Prayer from the Life of Jesus?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/doidam10
This article is part of our prayer resources meant to inspire and encourage your prayer life when you face uncertain times. Remember, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, and God knows your heart even if you can't find the words to pray.
Prayers for Healing
Morning Prayers
Prayers for Family
Prayers for Surgery
Prayers for Strength
Night Prayers Before Bed
Prayers for Protection
The Lord's Prayer: Our Father
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