Faith in Action

But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?

Luke 18:8

The parable of the persistent widow and unjust judge is an interesting lesson in faith in action. The widow tenaciously badgers the judge until he finally acquiesces and rules for her. The parable is told by Jesus to His disciples so they will “always pray and never give up.” (vs1) To do this, people need to have faith that their prayers will be heard and acted on. This parable is really about the faith it takes to continue to ask God for what we desire even when it seems He is not listening.

Each of us has prayed for things that God said no to. I know this to be a fact. We ask for healing and it does not come. We ask for blessings and they do not materialize. We ask for peace that continues to evade us. Why? Why does God say no? Why does He not give us everything we ask for? Just look at the movie Bruce Almighty to see the answer to that question. God blesses us with what we need. He heals some and not others. The one constant that we should continue to pray for is that His will is being done here just like in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Perhaps that is the biggest lesson for us concerning faith and prayer.

In the parable, the unjust judge gets tired of trying to ignore the persistent widow and finally gives in to her request. She asks for vengeance and the judge gives it to her because she was a pain in his keister. It seems strange to me that Jesus is telling a story about two unseemly people in order to inspire us to have a prayerful relationship with God. Are we really supposed to bother God in prayer until he finally answers us to quiet us? Perhaps there is another way to view this story.

I want to believe what Jesus is telling us to do is put our faith into action. Jesus tells us that we are to always pray and never give up just like the widow in the story. She kept asking for her view of justice. We should put our faith in God’s ability to bring justice to us. Prayer is our pathway to God. Paul tells us to never stop praying in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. We should also never give up. Always trust God to be there for us and give us what we need. The widow trusted that if she asked enough, the judge would grant her request. She had faith in the system (and her persistence).

Finally, the question Jesus leave us with is are we willing to trust Him and keep the faith? When He returns, will we be among the faithful? The inference is that people who continue to pray and never give up are counted as faithful. We need to continue to pray in all circumstances to ensure our faith is put into action.

Scripture: Luke 18:1-8