The importance of Prayer: How we come to God
Readings begin at: 16:38
The sermon begins at 21:35
Readings: Luke 18:1-8, Luke 18:9-14, Psalm 84
How and when should we approach God? I’ve heard many people say, “God doesn’t care about my job, or my money worries, or my relationship problems, my situation, or even my feelings and desires”, but the truth is that these things are exactly what God cares about. It is the nitty-gritty of our life that affect us and other people. Partly, because these things can all affect how we see and share the kingdom of God which we all need. The hard part is that God primarily wants to give us these things, answer our requests and settle our feelings through a relationship with him. So today, Jesus focus’ on a primary need: that we should be approaching God in prayer all the time: praying without ceasing.
Luke tells us right off the start, the reason Jesus is telling us the story of the widow and the unjust judge is so that we will always pray and never give up. So no hidden meaning, we need to pray and not give up. We might think we should shy away from smaller needs because the widow is seeking some kind of justice, but notice that it is purposely left open. We don’t know if someone she loved was killed, something was stolen, her name was discredited, or someone had mistreated her. The fact is that most of our needs and desires fall into the need for justice. A desire for peace, a broken relationship, overworking, fear, and more are all settled in God’s just world. My point is that God cares. God cares about all of the little things or what may seem little. Remember God created everything. Scientists can see as much effort, care and purpose put into a tiny cell or atom as was put into a galaxy or the cosmos. That is our creator and loving God. In some ways, there are actually some beautiful parallels between the grand and the minuscule like the universe exists as one great chiasmus just like Luke 18, but I can’t get into that now.
Jesus tells us this story about the unjust judge so that we might see God’s desire to answer our prayers. Think about it. Here is this judge who answers the requests of the widow, even though she has no social status, even though he doesn’t care about people, even though he doesn’t care about God. Why? Because she keeps bothering him because he doesn’t know if or how it will end. Yet we have a God who cares about justice, we have a God who cares about people, we have a God that we have a grand status before as his image bearer. If we are persistent how much more will he answer us, because he wants to?
Yet, in this passage and in our lives we are faced with a difficult reality. God doesn’t always answer our prayers right away, right, or in the way we desire. Why? Well, the passage reminds us that we don’t see answers because we are not as persistent as we need to be, but why is persistence so important? I think there are a lot of reasons and I will admit I probably don’t know half of them, but here are a few.
1) Often times we ask for something in prayer, but we don’t see it happen, because we have stopped praying for it or watching for it. I have had many prayers answered yet I don’t often hit that moment where we pray for something and realize that God has answered it. I often stop praying before that happens.
2) Prayer is how we build a relationship with God and so the more persistent we are in prayer the better our relationship, the more we will experience his bounty just by knowing him.
3) God wants us to be like him, to be advocates for a better life and world, advocates for his kingdom. Jesus himself prays often and so should we. Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets also become great examples of what an advocate before God can do to change the world and people.
4) Oftentimes, we don’t know what we need, but through being persistent with God, not only might he actually open our eyes to what is truly needed, but he may also find a way of answering our requests within his grand plan
5) And somewhat related to 4, sometimes our hearts need to be changed. Sometimes we have our desires and feelings pointed toward something that isn’t good for us or others. The seven deadly sins: greed, wrath, lust, envy, pride, gluttony and sloth often served as a reminder of when good desires go wrong.
6) Lastly, sometimes consistent prayer can help us answer or pursue our prayers answer. Remember we have an important part in answering prayer, whether it is our own prayer or others.
So persistence can help us to see when our prayer is answered, it helps us build a relationship with God, it helps us to be like God, it helps us see what we really need, it helps change our hearts, it helps us see how to be an answer to prayers, and it can even shape God's action.
The amazing thing about the power of prayer is that everyone, no matter where they are in life has access to its power. Whether you are stuck in bed, suffering from illness, busy at work, juggling a baby, in the middle of a meeting, in transit, or wherever, you can pray, you can connect with the most impactful relationship that there is.
The Pharisee and the tax collector both go to the temple to pray, which reminds us that dedicated time and places for prayer, prayer at home, and at church is important. But prayer can also be anywhere at any time. We can imagine the widow bothering the judge at home, on the street corner, while shopping, while he is on another case, and more. The difference is, we can’t bother God, so any moment we can find, any place, any focus we can give is a great time to pray. What could it look like for you to pray while in a conversation, while writing, while driving, while eating, or before or after? It is possible to be consistently building a relationship with God. I’m not pretending I am great at this, but I have begun to learn how it can affect something as simple as writing or driving.
I want to just briefly touch on the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector because it is important in clarifying how we should approach God. We see the Pharisee approach God with pride, looking at himself as right, as doing better than his neighbor. This is something that often stands in our way when approaching God or stops us from becoming an answer to prayer. We already believe we are right and good, so how can we grow in God, how can we become more? His own pride, ego, and self-image actually get in the way of seeing where he has gone wrong and what he still needs to work on.
What is more, even if we have a better relationship with God, more stuff, or a healthy upbringing, what we need to realize is that we have been entrusted with more and so God calls us to do more with it. The more we have been given in this life, the more responsibility we have to use what God has given for love. Most of us here stand within a great responsibility for that very reason.
The purpose of our relationship with God is continual growth in love, continual sanctification, continual forgiveness, and redemption. It might be that we are not committing adultery, stealing outright, or killing anyone, but hatred, jealousy, greed, coveting, and lust can do just as much evil in our hearts and lives. As we have been entrusted with more, what we buy, how we invest, and how we relate to our neighbor or our job are even more important. The Pharisee still had a long way to go and so do we.
The tax collector is the one that approaches God correctly. He knows he still has a way to come. He knows he has fallen short. He knows he is undeserving before God. This is true for all of us, even if we have done good things. This is how we need to approach God with open hands ready to receive, ready to change, and ready to serve.
Something does make us different than this tax collector though. In Christ, we know we have been justified, we know that we have been saved, but that doesn’t mean we have been conformed to him yet, we are not Christ yet. Christ’s salvation does not mean that we have deserved what Christ has done for us, or that we even know what is right. It means Jesus does know and that he can and has worked through us, but that also means that we need to continually connect with him to be and do what we need to be and do. We have the greatest reminder of what God can do in our lives in Christ and so we need to live into this reality with all that we are: at all times in all places, humbly approaching the one who has already saved us.
Prayer is important. It is so important that Jesus wants us to bring it into every part of our lives, in everything we do and are. It is important because it is the way we build a relationship with our creator and it is the way he changes our hearts. We are not worthy of this relationship and yet God continually wants to come close. Prayer is a way in which we receive him more and more. Through persistence, prayers will be solved, questions answered, justice served, and peace instilled. What do we forgo for not coming to God in prayer more often? Challenge yourself over the next few days and weeks to grow and increase in prayer. AMEN
Bible Study Questions:
Readings: Luke 18:1-8, Luke 18:9-14, Psalm 84
Luke 18:1-8
Vs. 1 Why does Luke give us the purpose of Jesus’ parable before he tells it? How does it change about our understanding of the parable?
2-5 Why does the unjust judge act? Would this work today?
What would it change if the unjust judge feared God? Or cared about people?
Why does the detail that she’s a widow affect the story and our understanding? In Jesus’ day and ours does position and status affect justice or people hearing your plea?
What is the widow asking for? Why is it so general?
6-8 In what ways are God and the unjust judge similar? How are they different?
Why is this story especially meant to show God’s care, if we are persistent?
The unjust judge didn’t listen because he didn’t care. What are some of the reasons God may not answer our prayers?
How will God still respond quickly even if he doesn’t seem to answer right away? How can both be true?
What does it mean for us to get justice? How does this relate to our prayers? Does God want us to pray for more than justice?
Why is persistence (Day and Night) important with God?
Why does it matter that the Son of Man finds faith on earth? How do we show faithfulness?
Who are God’s chosen ones? (check out Luke 18:15-17)
Luke 18 functions as a chiasmus (a poetic, liturgical feature that repeats themes in reverse order). That means that the blind beggar in Luke 18:35-43 is a parallel story. How do they relate/add to one another?
Luke 18:9-14
Vs. 9 Why does Luke give us this intro? What does it tell us about the coming story?
Why is it bad to be confident in our own righteousness? Why does it often lead to looking down on others?
Vs. 10 Pharisees were the spiritual guides of Israel, who interpreted and lived out the law. Tax Collectors were jewish people that worked for Rome collecting money from the people. Pharisees were often at the centre of the community where tax collectors were austrocised. Why would Jesus choose these two people as examples for his parable?
What is important about them going to the temple and not just praying at home?
11-13 What is the difference between what the two men say and how they express themselves?
Do you think the Pharisee does all of these things? Why might his own selfimage lead him to lie to himself and God? How can our selfimage do the same?
Even if the pharisee does all of these things, is that enough? What does God care about most? What does he want from us? Why would the pharisees selfimage stop him from seeing this, even though he is a teacher of the law?
How is the pharisee exactly like other people? Why can’t he see this?
How does the taxcollector see right?
How could the pharisee have learnt from the tax collector?
Even if we are ahead in our faith, if that’s possible, how should we look towards God and one another?
Why might more be expected of the pharisee than the tax collector? Why should God expect more from Christians, authorities and the wealthy?
How do we balance an unworthiness and God’s desire to draw us close?
Vs. 14 What does it mean for someone to be justified before God? Why is this important? (A helpful idea may be the idea of an acquittal)
Our first reading tells us about when we should reach out to God, this section goes more into how. How might this change our prayer life?
The parallel chiasm of this text is Luke 18:31-34 - How do they relate?
Self-Control - This one relates to all of our other fruits - love, gentleness, kindness, patience - we want to try to control our actions so that they always create love, gentleness, kindness and more
Except for the problem with these great things is when I get angry I don’t want to be gentle or loving. When I want something, I don’t want to be patient or giving. Do you ever get really angry and so might be a little meaner for more forceful than you would otherwise be? Do you ever really want something so maybe you cry or you fight for it or refuse to share.
Self-Control is really important because it is the hard times when it is especially important to act in kindness. That is often the best opportunity to show our faithfulness and love in a way that will affect us and others.
Let me show you a physical example of this: firing elastics (when is it appropriate and when is it not, when it is dangerous and when it is not)
If it feels hard to control ourselves it is especially important to turn to God’s Holy Spirit in you, and trust that he can strengthen you.
Our passage today reminds us that we show our strength not by getting what we want, but by controlling ourselves. As a result, we can find peace in what we have at the moment.
