I want us to think for the next
few minutes on the subject of prayer. This is the teaching
of our Lord Jesus Christ concerning that subject, that we should
always pray. The Lord Jesus spake a parable,
a whole parable to this end to teach us this one subject, that
His children, the children of God, should always pray and never
to lose heart. And here's his parable written
in the 18th chapter of Luke and beginning in verse 1. He spake a parable unto them
to this end, for this purpose, that men ought always to pray
and not to faint, to lose heart. saying, There was in a city a
judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a
widow in that city, and she came to him, saying, Avenge me of
my adversaries. And he would not for a while,
but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God,
nor regard man, Yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge
her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said,
Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall not God avenge His
own elect which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long
with them? I tell you that He will avenge
them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of
Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth." As you read the
scriptures, you realize that there are two things that God
is always encouraging His children to do. Two things. You find this everywhere in the
Word of God. One is to believe Him. He is
always encouraging His people to believe Him, to trust Him. He moved upon these apostles
and these prophets of old and wrote to us an entire book of
facts, of history, of truth, of doctrine. And then he turns
right around and he says, I cannot lie. I cannot lie. I'm faithful and true. Believe
me. He gives us these precious promises,
exceeding great and precious promises, and says, Believe me.
Believe me. John says it this way. He says
there are many things written, which the Lord Jesus Christ did,
which is not written in this book. He said if everything was
written of him that could be written, the world itself could
not contain the book. But he said these are written
and pinned down that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ,
and that believing you might have life through his man. Thomas, he said, because you've
seen me, you believe. But blessed is the man who has
not seen me, and yet he believes. He believes the record that God
gave of his son. God is always encouraging us
to believe him, to trust him. And secondly, he's always encouraging
us to pray, to pray. If this was the only parable,
if this was the only place in the word of God that taught us
to pray, it would be enough. If this was the only verse we
had to teach us that we should always pray, verse one is enough. He spake a parable to this end
that men should always pray. That's another thing. If He just
said it one time, the Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven,
and here's what He said, I know the Father. I know Him. I was with Him. Not just for
a while. I was with Him before the world
was. I was with Him back in eternity. I know His heart. I know His
desires. I know His will. And He has sent
me to encourage you to never thank, but to always pray. That would be enough, wouldn't
it? That would be enough. Jesus Christ came down from heaven,
and this is the message that He has for us. We ought always
to pray. And never to lose heart. Always
pray. And as you and I read the Bible
from Genesis all the way through the book of Revelations, one
thing we find in it, that God's people is a praying people. Wherever you find them, they're
praying. Listen to this and see if this
is so. Anna prayed unto the Lord. Hannah, the mother of Samuel. She prayed unto the Lord in the
grief and heaviness of her soul. She sought the Lord. And the
Lord heard her and gave her a son. And she prayed again. She prayed
again and gave thanks unto Him for what He had done. Everywhere
we look in the scriptures, we find out the reason we should
pray is because God is a God who hears and answers prayer. Why pray if He doesn't answer
us? It was said of Anna, the widow
who lived in the temple, there in Luke chapter 1, that day and
night she served the Lord with fasting and with prayer. She prayed unto Him. And look
what a revelation she had of the Son of God. We're told of
David. He said, ask for me, I will call
upon God, and the Lord shall save me. And listen to this.
He said, in the evening I'll call on Him. In the morning will
I call on him, and at noon will I pray and cry aloud unto the
Lord, and he shall hear my voice." The Lord's people are praying
people. Who taught them to pray? The Holy Spirit teaches them
to pray. Wherever you find them, they pray. David said again,
at midnight will I rise and give thanks unto the Lord, the cause
of his righteous judgment. And then again, he said, seven
times a day will I praise him for his righteous judgment. Remember
Daniel? Three times a day he opened his
window toward Jerusalem and he prayed to God. And I tell you,
the Lord gave that man visions. He delivered him from the den
of lions. The Lord appeared to Jeremiah when Jeremiah was imprisoned
for righteousness' sake. And here's what he said to Jeremiah,
"'Call upon me, and I will answer you, and I will show you great
and mighty things that you know not.'" It was said of the apostles
in the early church, we will give ourselves continually to
prayer. I wonder if they remembered Luke
18. where the Lord Jesus taught them,
pray without ceasing. In Acts chapter 12, when Peter
was in prison, it was said that prayer was made without ceasing
of the church unto God for him. And you go to the apostle Paul,
our apostle, the apostle of the Gentiles, and he says this, I
cease not to give thanks to God, making mention always in your
prayers to God, praying for you without ceasing. And then he
instructs us to be anxious for nothing, but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known to God. A fellow was talking to me one
time about prayer, and he said, I don't know much about prayer.
He said, I just know God knows it anyway. I guess he left it
there. Like I didn't know that God knew
what we needed. We read our Bibles. We know that
God knows. But we read our whole Bibles.
And we know the Lord said, Let your requests be made known to
God. Pray without ceasing. James said this, Confess your
faults one to another. and pray one for another, that
ye may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much, much. Pray without ceasing. That's the church of God. That's
the people of God. Wherever you find them, they're
praying people. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
the best example that you and I can find in all the Bible,
because here he was, a perfect man, and yet he prayed continually. He prayed with his disciples.
He prayed for his disciples. He prayed with a multitude. He
prayed in private. We're told that sometimes he'd
walk early before it got day and he'd go out into a private
place to pray. One time we're told that he prayed
all night to God. Jesus Christ was a praying man. Brothers and sisters, you and
I belong to a family that prays. We belong to a group of people
who are citizens of a heavenly country and they pray. Why do
they pray? Because they know that God is
a God who hears and answers prayer. And having said all of this,
let me say this, that prayer is one of the most difficult
works that anybody ever did. The children of God are praying
people. But I tell you, prayer is a difficult task. Especially
when you pray without ceasing and think not. It's even more
difficult. And the Lord Jesus gives us two
reasons here for it. One of them is here in verse
7, and one is in verse 8. The first reason is found here
in verse 7. Look at it. And shall not God
avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him? Look
at this. Though he bear long with them. Sometimes it seems like the Lord's
enemy. And the enemies of his children
win the day. They persecute the Lord's people.
They are a terrible burden to them. And the Lord is so patient
with the enemies of his people. He bears long with them. And
sometimes he bears long with his people. He doesn't always
hear them and answer their prayer immediately when they pray. Have
you ever had anything that really grieved you? I mean, it was an
awful burden about you, and you went to the Lord and you prayed
about it, and you went back to Him and you prayed about it again,
and you never got an answer. Ain't that tough? He bears long. Hannah, Samuel's mother, was
barren for years, and the Scripture says she prayed in the grief
of her spirit. That was tough. To go pray once
or twice or three times about wanting a child, but to do it year after year
after year, to continue there and not faint, I tell you, that
takes some patience. There have been Christian dads
and Christian mothers who have prayed for years for their lost
sons and their lost daughters. never to be of sin saved in their
lifetime. I'm telling you that's a sore
trial, man. It's a sore trial. How often
in our forefathers' day has the church been persecuted, and they
pleaded with God to deliver them from their persecutors, and God
seems to bless the persecution and the persecuted. John Bunyan
was one of the greatest preachers apart from the apostles that
ever lived. had a blind daughter and a poor wife, and they put
him in jail in the Bedford prison for twelve and a half years.
And he prayed, and the church prayed, and his wife prayed,
and his little blind daughter prayed. But for twelve and a
half years, God said, no, just keep on praying. That's tough,
ain't it? That's tough. He burst long with
them. David was in this awful pit,
he called it, a horrible pit. He said, a place where there
was no standing. And he said, I called unto the
Lord. I cried unto the Lord. And then
I waited patiently. And He brought me up. I tell
you, there's waiting. There's waiting. Because He wears
long. The second thing that makes prayer
difficult, if we're going to continue in it always and not
to faint, is found here in the latter part of verse 8. Nevertheless,
when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth. What kind of faith is he talking
about? When he comes again, will he find faith on the earth? Well,
we know he's going to find the doctrine of faith. If the church
is here, then the truth is here, because she's the pillar and
ground of the truth. As long as you've got a church
here, you're going to have a group of people who believe the gospel
of the grace of Christ. It may come a time where you'll
be scarce, and it'll be difficult to find. It's about getting that
way now. But there will be the doctrine of faith. When Christ
comes, the truth is going to be believed. There's going to
be the grace of faith, because everybody that's saved has the
grace of faith. They believe in Christ. They
believe this Bible to be infallible. They believe God. What faith
is he talking about here? He's talking about the exercise
of faith. When the Lord Jesus comes, will
he find men exercising their faith? And that's what it takes
to continue in prayer. When God defers, when He waits,
when He says, pray on, and you don't find an answer, that's
when you have to live exercising your faith. James said this,
"'If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God. For he gives
to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. But let him ask in faith.'"
That's the exercise of it. The writer of Hebrews said, "'He
that comes to God must believe that he is.'" But he didn't stop
there, did he? He must believe that He is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. That's the exercise
of faith. And if you and I are going to
pray, and when we don't get the answer, if we're going to continue
to pray, I'm telling you what, we're going to have to live upon
this truth. God hears prayer. I don't know
why He's deferring an answer, but I know this much. He's able.
He's able. And boy, when your understanding
is so darkened and you don't know, and when there's clouds
overhead and it seems like heaven is shut up against you, you can't
find one precious promise to lean upon, and things are bad.
You'll hear this little voice whisper to your faith, He's able. Pray on. He's able. He's able. Now, let's look right
quickly at this parable. It's very encouraging. The Lord
Jesus gave it to us to encourage us to pray always and never to
lose heart. We find these two people, those
two people the Lord told us of, a judge and a widow. A judge and a widow. And I imagine
there was a great distance between these two people, don't you?
He wasn't a little country judge now that knew the citizens of
this little town. But he was a judge in a city. In a city. He was somebody that
had the authority to put you in jail, to avenge you, or he
had the authority to let somebody else avenge themselves on you.
This was a man that people feared. He was a man that probably often
took bribes. A wretched judge. We'll see that
in a minute. But who was she? Well, she was
a poor widow. She had no money, she had no
influence, nothing. And I would suppose that this
at least social distance between these two people seems to indicate
to me that she was a perfect stranger to this judge. I mean,
he probably never laid eyes on this woman until she came into
his courtroom one day and began to cry out, avenge me of my adversaries. And he looked back there at her
and said, who in the world is that? What's her name? What does she do? Who is this
woman coming in here and crying for me to avenge her adversary? But she came to him even though
she was a stranger to him and he to her. And the Lord Jesus
said she never stopped coming to this stranger until finally
he granted her what she wanted. How different, dear child of
God, is the one that you pray to. You're no stranger to your
Father in heaven. The Scripture says the Lord knows
them that are His. And look here again what He said
in verse 7. Shall not God avenge His own
elect? Don't you love the way the Holy
Spirit says that? I just wonder sometimes why he doubles these
words. He could have said, Shall not
God avenge his own? And stopped her. Or he could
have said, Shall not God avenge his elect? But it seems like
even the Spirit rejoices in this business of God's people being
his elect, that he just wants to talk about it and exaggerate
it. Shall not God avenge his own
elect. I'm telling you, brothers and
sisters, every generation that there is from Adam, and I'm sure
that will be to the end of this world, you'll find some people
in this world who is God's own people. They're His by His choice. He chose them, and He says, You're
mine. There He is by election. There
He is by redemption, by blood redemption. There He is by effectual
calling. And every time they're approaching
to Him, the Father says, they're Mine. You're no stranger to Him. If you're approaching Him to
a stranger in prayer, it may be different. But I'm telling
you what, when you come to the throne of grace, you're approaching
One who has known you before you even had a being. Ain't that
so? This is my people. I want you to turn with me to
Zechariah, and if you haven't marked this verse, hold Luke
13, if you haven't marked this verse, turn over to Matthew,
and when you get to Matthew, the first book in the New Testament,
and just turn to your left, and you'll see Malachi, and then
the next book in the Bible, you'll find Zechariah. And I want you
to look at chapter 13 and beginning here in verse 6. And if you haven't
marked this in your Bible, mark this. What a blessing this is.
Look in verse 6 of Zechariah chapter 13. Remember this when
you go to your Father in prayer. And one shall say unto him, What
are these wounds in thy hands? Well, we know who that is, don't
we? And he shall answer, These are the wounds which I received
in the house of my friends. And the Father says, Awake, O
sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow,
saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, smite him
on the cross, wound him for the transgressions of my people,
and the sheep shall be scattered, and I'll turn my hand upon the
little ones, and it shall come to pass that in all the lands,
saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off, and shall die."
Oh, how dreadful that is. But look at this, but a third
part shall be left. Aren't you glad for elected love,
brothers and sisters? If the Lord hadn't chosen some
of us, all of us would have perished. And look what he says in verse
9, I will bring this third part, this remnant, this elect people.
I will bring them through the fire, and I will refine them
as silver is refined, and I will try them as gold is tried. And they shall call on my name,
and I will hear them, and I will say, It is my people. And they
shall say, The Lord is She came to a stranger who never
laid eyes on her, didn't know what her name was or anything
about her, didn't know what her need was, but yet she prevailed
with this perfect stranger in prayer. And the Lord Jesus said,
How much more are you when you come to God who knows you? He
knows you. He knows your name. Something else, and he goes even
further here in our parable, is this. Not only was she a stranger
to him, but we're told of the character of this judge that
she came to. Here in verse 6 we're told that
he was an unjust judge. He probably took bribes all the
time. And if this widow had come with
some money in her hand, he'd have probably listened. He was
unjust. He's probably a rich man, got
rich on taking bribes, perverting justice. But we're told here
in the last portion of verse 4, something else about him.
He says in verse 4, and he would not avenge her for a while, but
afterwards he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard
man. Look at this. Here's the kind
of fellow this widow came to, and he was so bold that he wasn't
ashamed to admit, I don't know God, I don't fear God, I don't
recognize God. I tell you, when you come to
this judge, you couldn't plead judge for God's sake. For God's
sake, have mercy. You said that to this judge,
you know what he said to you? We don't believe in God here.
You idiot! You believe in God? I don't believe
in God. And don't appeal to me by appealing
to God's mercy. I don't fear God. I don't recognize
Him. I do what I want to do. Don't
bring God's name up to me. Oh, he didn't fear God. And the
Scripture says here, he did not regard man. He didn't respect
man. Here this widow stood, and perhaps
she had some tears flowing down her cheeks. Avenge me! He didn't
care for those tears. He looked at the rag she was
dressed in with contempt. He wished somebody would get
her out of his sight. I don't fear God and I have no
respect for you. I don't care what trials or suffering
you're going through. I don't care about you." That's
the kind of man she came to. And she was so persistent, she
kept troubling him until finally he says, give this woman what
she wants. Brothers and sisters, what kind
of a person do you and I come to? When we come in prayer, is
this the kind of judge that we come to? Listen to what the Lord
Jesus said and how He taught us to pray. He says, when you
pray, begin this way, Our Father who art in heaven. Our Father
who art in heaven. We're not coming to somebody
to whom we're a stranger, and we're not coming to somebody
who is indifferent to us and does not care. We're coming to
our Father in heaven. I tell you for myself, and you
probably can relate to this too, when I have taken my time to
begin my prayer and realize who I'm praying to, And my relationship
to him and his relationship to me, I have found as much comfort
and encouragement in making that one statement, my Father, as
I have in all the rest of my prayer together. Father. I imagine when this poor widow
came before this judge, don't you imagine she had some fear?
Well, you know she did. She knew the kind of guy that
he was. She had to have some apprehension. I'm afraid of this. I fear this judge. But I tell
you, when we come to our Father, He's not given us the spirit
of bondage to fear, but He's given us the spirit of adoption.
And we cry, Father, Father, Father. The Lord Jesus made this statement.
This is one of the most wonderful statements I think sometime I
ever read. And if you'd like to read it,
you can find it over in John chapter 16 and verse 26 and verse
27. But let me quote it to you. He
was ready to go to the cross and leave his disciples. And
here's what he said to them concerning prayer. In that day, when I have
raised from the dead and I send back to my Father, in that day
you shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you, I will pray
the Father. Oh, I'll do that. But there's
more than that to encourage you to pray. Not only will I ask
the Father, but listen to this, the Father himself loveth you. Ain't that wonderful? Ain't that enough, brothers and
sisters, to encourage you to pray? The Father loveth You,
as a Father, pitieth His children. So the Lord pitieth them that
fear Him. And He's not only our Father,
our tender and merciful Father, but He's our righteous Father. Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. When the Lord Jesus prayed sometime,
He said, Holy Father, righteous Father, my righteous Father,
I tell you, he does not pervert judgment. He will not look upon
a widow and turn her away because she is poor and needy. He pleads
the cause of the fatherless and the orphans, the Bible says.
And listen to what he says in the book of Lamentations chapter
3. Though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according
to the multitude of his mercy. He does not afflict willingly,
nor grieve the children of men, to crush under His feet all the
prisoners of the earth, to turn aside the right of a man before
the face of the Most High." Isn't this a wonderful thing? He counts
it, brothers and sisters, though you and I are poor and miserable
sinners, and God would be be free to punish us, even damn
us, because of our sin. But he says, I count it your
right to approach unto me and plead your cause before my throne.
And he said, I would count it to do you wrong if I turned you
away. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
You come to me and you're in trouble, you're in afflictions,
and I just turn a deaf ear to you? That wouldn't be right,
he said. I'm a righteous father. How would you think if one of
your children came to you? I don't care how old they were. And they were in need. Do you
think it would be your right just to turn them away? You don't,
do you? And the father thinks the same
thing about himself. I'll never do it, he said. If this wither prevailed with
such an unjust judge who had such an arrogant attitude concerning
himself, can you and I not prevail with such a merciful father who
is righteous in all his dealings with his children? Something
else concerning this judge and this wither, and this, she didn't
have a friend in the court. Sometimes, you know, if a lawyer
or a client is going before the judge, they've got a friend of
the court. They'll get a friend who knows
the judge or acquainted with him and he writes them a letter
of recommendation or something like that. This poor woman had
nobody. She didn't have a friend to stand
up and say, Judge, I know this woman. She had nobody to care
for her. She had to stand by herself and
plead her own cause. Is it that way with us? We've
got a friend in the courtroom. We have a mediator with a father. And you know something? He's
the father's son. He's the judge's son. And He's
standing there always to make intercessions to us with the
Father. Listen to this. If any man sin,
if any man sin, oh, what happens when we sin? We get broken hearted,
don't we? And we go to the Father and we
confess our sins to Him. But we need to know, does He
hear us? Does He forgive us? Can we know
that we're forgiven? And he went on to say this, if
any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. He's our lawyer. He's the friend
of the court on our behalf. And he says, Father, behold my
woman and be merciful. Father, behold my side and forgive. Here comes this poor widow. Look
at her. Look at her poor countenance,
how sad she is. She's broken. What's the matter
with her? She's sinned. Father, forgive
her. Father, hear her. And the Scripture
says He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse
us. We got a friend in the court.
Somebody was telling not long ago about this man that had got
himself in trouble. And he knew that if he could
get to talk with Abraham Lincoln, if I can just get in to see Mr.
Lincoln, he said, I know he can straighten all this out for me.
But they wouldn't let him in. Wouldn't let him in. You can't
see President Lincoln. Who are you to think you can
get in to see the President? And he stayed outside. Stayed
outside waiting, hoping, just to get a word. And he saw this
little boy playing out behind the house. And he went up to
him and said, who are you? Well, he said, I'm the President's
son. He said, I want to see the President, but they won't let
me in. They won't let me in. They won't let me in. He said,
I can get you in. I can get you in. That's my father. And he just took me by the hand
and led him right in to where his dad was. And there he stood
in the presence of the President of the United States of America.
What am I saying? We have a friend in heaven who
can get us by the hand, as it were, and take us right to his
Father. And he'll say, Father, these
are the ones for whom I've died. These are my friends. Father,
hear them for my sake. If she prevailed on this judge
without having a friend in the court, don't you think we could
prevail with God since we have such a mediator with our Father? Notice this about this poor widow
also. She wasn't an eloquent speaker.
Her prayer was very brief. Very, very brief. Just five words.
That's all she said. That's all we've got record,
she ever said. Avenge me of my adversary. No big words. No eloquent speech. She wasn't
concerned about eloquent speech. You know what she was concerned
about? Being heard. I went to the Lord in prayer
just this week. I tell you what, I could not think of a word. I did not have one word to say. Not a word. I just sat there. And finally I said, Oh Lord,
I don't have a word to say before you. Would you give me a heart?
Would you give me a heart? Five little words. But you know
something? She meant it. Boy, she meant
it. Well, you may be here this morning.
You may have these dark clouds in your mind. You go to the Lord
and you can't think of a word. You can't think of a verse of
Scripture. You can't recall a promise. But you're in trouble. Man, you're
in trouble. And you say, Bruce, I don't know
how to pray. I don't know how to pray. Well, let me ask you
this. What's in your heart? I'm not concerned about eloquence. I'm not concerned about articulation. And you think God is concerned
about that? I don't know how to tell Him
about my need. I don't know what to say. I don't
know how to pray. He knows that. And He's not concerned you coming
before Him and articulating all of this long speech. Boy, he's interested in the heart.
Where's your heart? What do you need? I'll tell you
some of the shortest prayers in the Scripture have been the
most effectual prayers. We've got it right here in this
chapter. Look back in this chapter 18. Look here in verse 13. Here's this publican. Went up
to the temple to pray. This wretched sinner. And look
what he said in verse 13. Standing afar off there in the
temple. He would not lift so much as his eyes to heaven, but
he slowed upon his breast." And here's what he said, seven little
words, God, God, he's going to articulate that. He's going to
tell God how he failed in Adam, and how Adam's sin was imputed
to him, and he's going to go into great detail. No, he knows
nothing about that, brothers and sisters. God, this is the
way I feel. This is coming from my soul,
my heart. Be merciful to me, the sinner. And the scripture says, he went
down to his house a saved man. What's your need? David went
to the Lord. He said, Help, Lord. That's all
he knowed to pray. Help, Lord. Peter was sinking
in the water and he said, Lord, save me. I perish. That's all
he had time to pray. I tell you, I'm suspicious about
people who can just articulate and articulate and articulate
and they go on articulating their prayers. And they're so pretty.
But I wonder if God hears them. I tell you I'd rather have a
heart without words is to have a mouth full of words and no
heart. Avenge me of my adversary. That's all she could pray. Avenge
me. Have mercy on me. Oh, save me. Help me. Lastly is this. The motives of
this unjust judge were finally avenging this widow. We find
it here in verse 5. He was a bad character, and I
tell you, he had bad motives. He gave two motives. It wasn't
that he loved her. It wasn't that he cared anything
about her, because he didn't. But here in verse 5, he gives
two motives for hearing this woman. Yet, because this widow
troubles me. She troubles him. I tell you
what, he had come to the court and there she was, every morning.
Avenge me on my adversary. Before he could sit down and
open up the court and find out who was on the doctor. There
she was. Avenge me. Avenge me. Put that woman out. Get her out of my sight. She's
troubling me. Every day she's troubling me.
I wouldn't let her back in the courtroom. She'd just wait on
me. Wait until he closed the doors and came out. She stalked
his heels all the way down the street. Avenge me! Avenge me! He'd go into the diner to get
him a meal, and there she stood pecking on the window. Judge,
avenge me! Avenge me! He'd go home. She found out where he lived.
And he'd hear that rapping on the door. Who in the world is
that this late? And he opened up the door, and
there she stood. Avenge me, my adversary. Woman,
you're troubling me to death. You're troubling me to death. That's why he answered her prayer.
That's what he said. Because she troubles me. And then he went on to say this
for the second reason. She's wearing me out. Lest by
her continual coming, she weary me. That word there has to do,
that word weary, I looked that up, it has to do with the blacking
of the eyes. It's what they do in fights when
they box. You ever seen two boxers going
at it? And boy, about this 8th or 10th round, you've got this
one guy, and this fella's just beat him up, and he staggers
back over this corner trying to get his breath. That's what
this word weary means. It means to black the eyes, to
beat one down. That's what she did. She just
kept coming, kept coming, kept coming, and finally he says,
she's got me beat down. Give her what she wants. That
was his motive. Is that the father's motive? No. He says, if you, being evil,
know how to give good gifts, how much more shall your father
give good things to them that ask him? He tells us to seek
Him. Seek me always. I love to hear
you pray. And I love to give you my good
things. This poor widow came to a judge
that despised her. We come to a Father who loves
us. She came without any invitation. You and I can't come with a Bible,
a whole Bible, full of invitations. This woman was held at a distance
by this strange judge. You and I are told to draw near
to God, and He'll draw near to us. She came without a promise. You and I have a book full of
promises. Knock, and it shall be opened. Seek, and you shall
find. Ask, and it shall be given you.
Call upon Me, and I'll answer you. And she was limited when
she could come, but we can cry to our Father. day and night. And she was far off from him
and he was far off from her in every sense of the word. But
the Bible teaches us we have a God who is near us. He's near us. Let us pray and
never faint.