Genesis 44,45,46; Luke 18
Pray and Never Give Up Hope
Scripture
Luke 18
He used this story to teach them: 2 “Once there was a judge in a town. He did not care about God. He also did not care what people thought about him. 3 In that same town there was a woman whose husband had died. She came many times to this judge and said, ‘There is a man who is doing bad things to me. Give me my rights!’ 4 But the judge did not want to help the woman. After a long time, the judge thought to himself, ‘I don’t care about God. And I don’t care about what people think. 5 But this woman is bothering me. If I give her what she wants, then she will leave me alone. But if I don’t give her what she wants, she will bother me until I am sick.’”
6 The Lord said, “Listen, there is meaning in what the bad judge said. 7 God’s people shout to him night and day, and he will always give them what is right. He will not be slow to answer them. 8 I tell you, God will help his people quickly.
Observation
Have you prayed much lately? If you answered, “Yes”, what has been the focus of your prayers?
Jesus is teaching a huge truth here about prayer using the story of a bad judge who didn’t care anything about God or people. A lady came to the judge asking the judge to help her because someone was mistreating her. She kept bothering the judge until he finally gave in and helped her. He didn’t do it because he feared God or even liked people he did it because he realized that they lady was going to continue to drive him crazy until he said he would help her.
The point of the story is that we have a Righteous Judge who wants to help us. He cares about us and wants to answer our prayers. Jesus says that we should pray and never give up hope. He was reminding his disciples and he is reminding us that we have a Good Heavenly Father who wants to answer our prayers.
If you spend most of your prayer time praying for yourself and your own personal needs I think you are going to be disappointed? I am not saying that God will not answer your prayers, but I am saying that there is more to prayer than praying for our own needs. Why not pray for everyone else that comes to our mind first and ask God to work in his or her life and then mention your own needs to God.
God knows that my heart is damaged and I would like for Him to fix it, but I am not going to spend all my time praying to God about my own health. God puts on my heart other people that need healing and I pray for them. My focus needs to be off of myself and I need to pray for those around me. Plus I know that I have lots of people who are praying for me everyday and they are asking God to heal me.
Application
I will pray today for those that need healing and those that are going through very difficult situations.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me keep my focus off of myself and help me think more about the people around me and the needs that they have. I know that You are going take care of me. You are the Great Provider. You are the Healer. There is nothing too hard for You.
I pray for those sick and in the hospital today: Jene Williams and Myrtle Varnes. I pray that You give them strength today and I pray that you heal them. I pray for my friends that are facing huge legal issues I pray that You would come to their rescue.
I pray for our pastor and our staff today. I pray that You bless them, that You give them the desires of their hearts, that You would answer their prayers and that You would make their plans successful. Amen.
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