Week of Prayer, Day 8: Keep Praying
Jesus was known for telling parables. Yet we often forget that he told them with a clear and specific purpose.
Take a slow, unhurried moment to read Jesus’ parable of the persistent widow below.
When you finish, return to verse 1 and read it again. Notice the stated purpose of the parable before you move on.
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 18v1-8 (NIV)
— Devotional —
If you’ve followed Jesus for any length of time, you have likely found something to be uncomfortably true:
Prayer can be both a deep joy and a real struggle.
On the one hand, prayer is as universal as love and as instinctive as speech. To pray is simply to be with God, to relate to him as a child to their Father. At times, it can be an easy experience where the felt presence of God is known.
On the other hand, prayer can feel like a real grind. Boring, long, pointless, like we’re getting nowhere. And of course, there are real intellectual difficulties with prayer. One of them is this:
Why are some prayers answered and others not?
Two women receive the same diagnosis. Both, along with their families, pray with faith and urgency. One recovers in a way doctors cannot explain. The other dies within a year.
How do we make sense of that? How do we continue to pray?
That’s why Jesus told this story.
“Wrestling with unanswered prayer isn’t a sign of unbelief, but of a maturing faith… It’s a sign of faith, not doubt.”
— Pete Greig
Unanswered Prayer
The parable centers on two characters.
First, a widow. She is vulnerable and wronged. She pleads, “Grant me justice against my adversary!” (Luke 18v3). We are not told the details, only that she is powerless and in need.
The widow represents us. This is how we come to God in prayer: not strong or self-sufficient, but needy. We come pounding at his door, begging for help.
Second, a judge. Jesus says he “neither feared God nor respected man” (v2). He is indifferent to what is right. Yet because the widow keeps keeps asking, he finally acts: “Because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice” (v5). He responds to her out of irritation, not compassion.
Scholars call this an a fortiori argument, which means “from the lesser to the greater.” The idea is that if one fact is true, then a stronger, more solid fact is also true. If even an unjust judge can be moved by persistence, how much more will a good God act for his people? “Will he keep putting them off?” (v7).
God is not annoyed by our prayers. He is the just Judge of all the earth. We may come to him again and again. He hears, and he will act according to his wisdom and righteousness.
So, again: Do not lose heart. Keep praying.
But some of us might say: “I have been praying for years! The door remains closed.”
What then?
“The only way to pray is to pray; and the way to pray well is to pray much.”
— Henri Nouwen
To understand this, we need to notice the context.
In the previous chapter, Jesus speaks about his return—the coming of the Son of Man, when the kingdom of God will be revealed in fullness and justice will finally be established (see Luke 17v23–25). He makes it clear: that day will come, but it is not yet.
So this parable is not mainly about getting everything we ask for now. It is about continuing to seek God in the long delay before that final day. The widow keeps knocking until justice comes. In the same way, disciples keep praying until the Son of Man appears.
That is why the parable ends as it does:
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18v8).
The deeper question is not whether God will act. He will. It is whether we will remain faithful while we wait.
Prayer, then, is another word for faithfulness to him. The story tells us: Stay true. Don’t be discouraged. Jesus will return one day to set the world right. All our prayers will one day be answered. There is coming a glorious day when the Son of Man comes again to rule and reign in total and final justice. Count on it!
While you wait: Keep praying.
— Prayer —
Use the guide below as a prompt for prayer today.
1. Engage your desire to grow in prayer.
Many feel shame about struggling with prayer, as though it should always be easy. Scripture does not support that assumption. The psalmists wrestled openly with God, and even the disciples asked for help (Luke 11v1).
To begin, face your own difficulties with prayer. Begin by naming your actual experience. Do not offer a vague intention to pray more. Speak honestly about the practice itself—your distractions, your doubts, the questions you carry, and the requests that seem unanswered.
Without adding shame, tell the Lord that you want to grow in speaking with him.
2. Keep prayer simple and real.
Pray about what you are carrying today. Use ordinary words. There is no need to sound polished or spiritual.
Pray honestly. Authentic prayer can be sustained; performance cannot. Saying what we think God wants to hear quickly becomes routine and hollow.
Take your time. Bring the matter before him. Do not hold back.
3. Commit to faith.
Jesus’ story calls us to persistent trust while we wait for his answer and return. We learn to rest in God’s timing, even when justice feels delayed.
Take a moment to place your waiting in his hands. Entrust your needs to his care.
Finish by slowly praying these lines aloud:
Though dark my path, and sad my lot,
Let me be still and murmur not,
Or breathe the prayer divinely taught,
“Thy will be done!”Let my fainting heart be blessed,
With Thy sweet Spirit for its Guest,
My God, to Thee I leave the rest;
“Thy will be done!”Renew my will from day to day;
Blend it with Thine, and take away
All that now makes it hard to say,
“Thy will be done!”(from “My God My Father While I Stray” by Charlotte Elliott)
Amen.
