Persistent prayer
by Neil Bergmann
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And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? (Luke 18:7)
Read Luke 18:1–14
Today’s reading looks at two parables about prayer – one about a persistent widow and one that compares prayers from a Pharisee and a tax collector. Together, they tell us our prayers should be persistent and humble.
Prayer, I think, is more about changing us than it is about trying to convince God to do what we ask. God already knows what we want and need, even before we put them into words. Is telling God the same thing over and over going to change God’s mind? Maybe if we get lots of people to pray the same thing, God will be more convinced. I doubt it.
Instead, prayer focuses our minds on what is important in our walk as disciples. We need all the help we can get if we are to live our lives as God intends and, even then, we will fail a lot. Discipleship is not a one-way street of improvement, always moving closer and closer to perfection. Instead, it is a cycle of being refreshed and strengthened by spending time in prayer and worship, sent out into a hostile world to follow God’s will, and then returning to spend time alone with God again.
We cannot live as disciples by our own strength and wisdom. Instead, we need to humbly approach God, over and over again, admitting our weaknesses and being filled by God’s strength and God’s wisdom.
God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I am weak; fill me with your strength. I am foolish; fill me with your wisdom. I am frightened; fill me with your courage. Amen.
Neil Bergmann worships at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Rochedale, Queensland. He represents the Lutheran Church on the Queensland Churches Environmental Network (QCEN), a commission of Queensland Churches Together.
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