Have you ever felt like your prayers are too repetitive? Do you often find yourself praying to God for the same things over and over again? I know I do. There are two passages in the Bible that I want to examine, compare, and apply in this article. In Matthew 6:7, Jesus tells the Jews to not use "vain repetitions." According to Matthew Henry's Commentary, Jesus was cautioning the Jews to not be like the Pharisees and "make long prayers (Matthew 23:14)" just for the sake of praying. This means that as Christians today, we shouldn't pray just because we have too. Instead, our prayers should come from the heart and it doesn't matter how long or short they are as long as we have our hearts and minds in the right place.
Now let me transition to the Parable of the Persistent Widow. In Luke 18:1-5, Jesus tells the Jews of a widow who wanted "justice for her adversary (v. 3)." The widow continuously went to the judge seeking justice for this adversary. The judge was a man that did not "fear God nor regard man (v. 2)." After a period of time however, the judge avenged or made things right with the widow (v. 5). In verses 6-8, Jesus explains this parable by saying in verse 7, "And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them them?" This tells us that every time we go to God in prayer, with the right heart and right mind of course He will hear us and avenge us.
So now you may be asking yourself, "Carver, how do I apply this to my life?" Well I'm glad you asked, because here are a two tips on how we can be more like the Persistent Widow and less like the Pharisees:
1. Make sure your prayers are sincere. When you pray really humble yourself. There should be things in our prayers that push us, or lead us to tears. Prayers are more sincere when we turn off the TV and put down the phone and just blot out every other care in the world and take time for God. I don't know about you, but this is easier for me to do at night when I'm getting ready to go to bed. I learned a long time ago when it comes to praying with someone in a public prayer, the best thing to do is to repeat what the man leading the prayer is saying back to yourself. Sadly our society is not friendly to the idea of stopping to pray. I challenge you to carve out time throughout your day to go to God in prayer. It may only be for 30 seconds, but for those 30 seconds just clear your mind of everything else but God. One thing that helps me is to put reminders out there for myself. In the "notes" app of my phone, I have three scriptures (2 Timothy 4:2, Philippians 4:13, and Romans 8:28) to constantly remind myself of throughout my day. Our prayers are not like school papers where we are required to write on a specific topic in 250 words. Instead prayers are the highest form of conversation we can engage in.
2. "Wear God Out." A few years ago there was a preacher that spoke at Willow Avenue's summer series. I can't remember his name and I don't even remember the title of his lesson, however one thing he said has stuck with me. He kept using the phrase "wear God out," in reference to our prayers. This phrase and the Parable of Persistent Widow go hand in hand. Just like the widow in Luke 18 absolutely wore the judge out with her requests, so should we with God. Contrary to what society says, God wants to know all our problems, needs, and requests (even though He's all knowing and already knows about them) and it's our job to bring them to Him. In Luke 18:1, it says "men always ought to pray and not lose heart." As Christians it's easier for us to lose heart when we pray sincerely and frequently but it seems like God is not listening and not sending us an answer. The Persistent Widow teachers us that if we have a Spiritual, Personal, Physical, etc, need, concern, or request we are to bring that to God frequently. Say you have a family member or friend that is living in sin, bring that to God and never stop until He answers it. Young people, do you pray for your future spouse? If so, bring that to God every time you pray. Persistency always pays off. God always answers our prayers. Not always in the way and/or time we want Him to, but He never forgets us.
Prayer is a very powerful thing. But with anything that's powerful, we have to use caution. Don't be like the Pharisees and pray just because you have too. But do be like the Persistent Widow and always come to God with your difficulties and needs. God loves YOU and wants to hear YOUR problems.
In Him,
Carver Moore
We would be honored for you to join us for worship at the Chestnut Mound church of Christ.
Our service times are as follows:
Sunday Morning Bible study: 10 am
Sunday morning worship: 11 am
Sunday evening worship: 5 pm
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