Always

Psalm 121:¹ “I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help?” (NKJV).

A question that I get asked and I hear people ask consistently is, how long should I keep praying? If I take a burden to God, should I stop praying after three days, three weeks, three months, or after three years? How long should I keep praying? The psalmist in today’s scripture is someone who obviously was in dire need of help and had been praying and wondering where help would come from. Yet the psalmist lifted up his eyes. I pray that you will look up and not give up.

Luke 18:^1-8 “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?”  (NIV, emphasis added).

There are two main types of parables, the parables of comparison and the parables of contrast. This particular parable is a parable of contrast. God is saying that in contrast to the unjust judge, He is sympathetic, He cares about people, and above all, He is just. In contrast to the unjust judge that was reluctant to answer the prayer of the widow, God is eager to answer our prayers. Jesus says He is teaching us that we ought to pray and not give up. There is a tight connection between prayer and justice. The concept of justice is something that Christians will rather not discuss. We prefer to stay with mercy because like the scriptures say, if God were to mark iniquity who can stand? In this passage, we see the words justice and just appear five times.

Prayer and justice are inseparable. We can plead for justice because of the cross of Calvary where justice was executed. And it is unjust to punish the same sin twice. So, when we come to God and ask for justice, we are not looking at our own merit or whether we are right or wrong. It is on His merit and because He has been punished for our sins.

Prayer: Father, I ask for the wisdom to fully understand Your justice and the grace to look up in prayer and not give up, in Jesus Mighty Name. Amen!