“Always pray and not give up”

Read Luke 18:1-8

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Prayer is a mystery. Sometimes we pray hard and long and nothing seems to change. We wonder too if it’s right to repeat that pray – after all, Jesus both promised that if we pray with faith then it will be done (Mk.11:24; Jas.1:5-6) and he also warned against empty repetition of words because our Father knows what we need before we ask him (Mt.6:7-8).

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But that saying is followed by the Lord’s prayer, a pattern to guide our regular praying (Mt.6:9-13) and in Luke the Lord’s prayer leads on to the parable of the friend at midnight, making clear that persistence is necessary, not because God is unwilling but because he is our Father (11:1-13). Likewise in this parable, Jesus isn’t suggesting that God is like the unjust judge, reluctant to answer until he gets nagged into it (4-5). Rather, if even an unjust judge will respond to persistent pleading then we can be very sure that God will hear and answer us (7).

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So prayer is a mystery, an act of faith, trying to discern God’s will and his time so that our prayers align with that (8; 1 Jn.5:14-15; 2 Pet.3:8). As his children (“his chosen ones” 7), “we live by faith not by sight” (2 Cor.5:7). So we “should always pray and not give up” (1).