“Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Luke 18:1
There once was a man who never gave up even though he was often a complete failure. Early in life he started a business. It failed. Next, he ran for state legislator and again he failed. So he ran a second time and lost a second time. He then decided to try another business, but as with everything else, it failed too. His fiance died a short time before their wedding which led to a nervous breakdown. A few years later he again tried running for Congress. He lost. He ran again and was defeated again. So he decided to run for the Senate, but, of course, he lost. Never one to give up, the next year he ran for Vice President of the United States, but once again, he lost. To make matters worse, he was often mocked because of his gangling arms, his towering height, and his unusual facial features. A year later he ran for the Senate and was defeated again. Finally, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States. Here was a man who never gave up. We can learn much from him.
Jesus told a story about never giving up. Luke 18 says: “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!’”
This woman refused to give up, so she continued to beg the judge until he heard her. God never refuses to listen to our prayers, but there are many times that he answers our prayer by saying the time is not right to grant us our wishes. Yet that does not mean we should stop praying. God wants us to come back to him again and again with our requests. He wants to keep hearing from us even if our request seems impossible.
God wants us to come to him as often as we can. He will never grow tired of hearing the same prayer over and over again, and we should never feel that we are bothering him. Let’s be like the widow and never give up!
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.
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