{"id":26316,"date":"2024-01-15T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2024-01-14T23:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/?p=26316"},"modified":"2024-01-11T12:51:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T11:51:52","slug":"always-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/2024\/01\/15\/always-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Always"},"content":{"rendered":"

Psalm 121:1<\/sup><\/a> \u201cI will lift up my eyes to the hills\u2014From whence comes my help?\u201d (NKJV).<\/em><\/p>\n

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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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Luke 18:1-8<\/sup><\/a> \u201cThen Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray<\/u><\/strong> and not give up<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0He said:\u00a0\u201cIn a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.\u00a0And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, \u2018Grant me justice<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0against my adversary.\u2019\u00a0\u201cFor some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, \u2018Even though I don\u2019t fear God or care what people think,\u00a0yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice<\/u><\/strong>, so that she won\u2019t eventually come and attack me!\u2019\u201d\u00a0And the Lord\u00a0said,\u00a0\u201cListen to what the unjust<\/u><\/strong> judge says.\u00a0And will not God bring about justice<\/u><\/strong> for his chosen ones, who cry out\u00a0to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?\u00a0I tell you, he will see that they get justice<\/u><\/strong>, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man\u00a0comes,\u00a0will he find faith on the earth<\/em>?\u201d\u00a0 (NIV, emphasis added).<\/p>\n

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<\/em>? In this passage, we see the words justice<\/em> and just<\/em> appear five times.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prayer<\/strong>: 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!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Psalm 121:1 \u201cI will lift up my eyes to the hills\u2014From whence comes my help?\u201d (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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[936,934,935,933,932],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adversary","category-always","category-sympathetic","category-unjust","category-widow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26317,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26316\/revisions\/26317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}