Luke 18

Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭18‬:‭1‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This parable teaches us that God wants us to be persistent with our prayers and “never give up” (verse 1).  This does not mean that we should continue asking God for something that we want until we get what we asked for.  It does mean that we should keep up with our requests and have faith that He will answer, whether His answer is what we asked for or not.  An example where someone appropriately stopped praying for something can be seen with Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9.  Paul pleaded with the Lord three times to take away a weakness that he was struggling with.  God refused Paul’s request, so Paul ceased praying about it, and instead completely accepted the fact that this burden was not meant to be taken from him at that time.  Jesus also prayed three times that God would spare Him from the agony of the cross.  Again, He stopped praying when it was clear that His request was denied (see Matthew 26:36-46).  We know that whatever we ask in His will is granted: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).  We also know that sometimes our hearts do not understand His will or His timing.  He may answer “yes” to our prayers, but then we may have to wait awhile for His timing to be perfect.  There are other times that we must be willing to accept “no” for an answer.  When we know God and trust His good character, we can repeatedly bring Him the same request and rest in the fact that His response and His timing is best for us.  

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭18‬:‭9‬-‭14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus told this parable to show us all how we are truly made right with God.  The parable was spoken directly to the Pharisees and other leaders who gave themselves lots of credit because of all of their pious works.  These people were proud and looked down upon others that were not as “holy” as them.  They felt confident that they were righteous, and in right standing with God because of how closely they followed the laws.  In this story, Jesus was trying to teach that the way to be justified before God is to simply humble yourself, admit that you are a sinner, and ask God for His mercy.  We are not justified (made right) with God by how much we memorize the Bible, whether or not we tithe, how long we pray, whether or not we fast, or how many weeks in a row we attend church.  All of these things are very important spiritual disciplines, but they are not a means by which we can earn God’s approval.  God hates this type of prideful attitude, and He spoke out against it on many occasions.  In Matthew 23:23-24, Jesus openly berates the Pharisees and religious leaders, being perfectly clear about His feelings towards them: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin.  But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.  You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  You blind guides!  You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”  It is easy to develop an “I’m better than you” attitude when we start comparing ourselves to others.  We need to guard our hearts against self-righteous attitudes, and make sure to seek God’s approval instead of the approval of man.  His approval is the only one that matters!