That men ought must always persistent, without ceasing, to pray and not to lose heart. This world system seeks to steal our faith. However, we must fight for faith by perservering in prayer with boldness to enter into His throne room.
I. Introduction:
The parable of the persistent widow teaches us that we are to continue to pray and not dismay or become dejected if our prayers do not seem to be answered right away. We are to come to understand that if request is not granted immediately, God may be testing us, teaching us patience, or working out a purpose we cannot see. We must understand that He works on His own timetable, not ours, and that He always work out what is best for us and for our particular situation.
Our job then is to persevere in our faith in God, always trusting Him in what we ask of Him.
II. Message
A. God will act - If the reader of this parable is not careful, he could judge God as being comparable to the unjust judge, that is that He will not answer our requests promptly unless we bother Him with a constant plea for help.
1. In contrast, In actually, the Lord Jesus Christ is contrasting the faithfulness of our loving God to the serl serving and unrighteous judge. He is not in any way a good man, but a godless one is just trying to shield himself from being annoyed.
A. God's faithfulness. Jesus is trying to get us realize God's unending love and faithfulness to His Faithful children. Never leave nor forsake us. We are to see that all that God is, the judge is not.
B. His perfect will. God is always willing to hear us and to answer our prayers if according to His will. He always hears the cries of His own elect. Indeed, God will avenge His people.
C. God allows delays. Jesus ends with the phrase, 'though He bear long with them?" this seems to imply that God bears long with His people's cries for help. But this is not the sense. The pronoun "them" refer not to God's elect, but their oppressors whom God endures far longer than we do.
2. God will avenge. The meaning is, that although He tolerates these oppressions for long time, "He will at length interpose on behalf of His own elect"
a. Speedily. In v.8, I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Speedily is probably another poor choice of words. It is better rendered, "suddenly" or "unexpectedly"
b. Promptly. When God's tolerance of these oppressors has run its course, He will promptly act.
1. Faithless therefore Godless - It seems very few will have the strength of faith that Jesus is talking about. As the God of the OT, Jesus having looked into man's heart from Creation and seeing humanity's trajectory to our day, had every reason to ask if there would be faith at the end time!
A) The Jewish. Even the Jews of Jesus' lifetime, full of Messianic fervor, they didn't had the faith the Lord is seeking.
B) The Church. Would even His people, Christians, followers of Christ, have saving faith?
2. Do we have this faith? What then is the evidence Jesus is looking, that will establish that we have the faith He is looking for?
a) different views - Some might view this faith as powerful individual faith to move mountains or to perform some other great miracle. This is not the real faith that the Lord Jesus is asking.
b) Real Faith - Yet, what Jesus is looking for are those who completely trust Him as God, & based on that trust, are living by faith according to God's revealed truth. His Word, despite of all the pulls and pressures from the world.