Luke 11:8 I say to you, Even though he will not rise up and give him anything because he is his friend, surely because of his shameless persistence he will rise and give him what he needs. (9) And I say to you, Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.
[Part 2 of 2] In Luke 18:1-8 we see the prayer from the visible realm. This kind of prayer is related to our enjoyment of the jubilee. Often the children of those who are faithful followers of the Lord ask their parents why they are suffering persecution. They may ask, "Since we love the Lord Jesus so much, why must we suffer?" Usually the parents do not know how to answer. It seems to the children that the Lord whom their parents follow is not righteous. We also may wonder why we suffer, since we love the Lord and follow Him. The parable in 18:1-8 answers our question. When our Husband is apparently absent and we are left on earth as a widow, temporarily our God seems to be an unrighteous judge. Although He appears to be unrighteous, we still must appeal to Him, pray persistently, and bother Him again and again. We need to be careful in understanding a parable such as the one recorded in 18:1-8. We should not try to understand it in a natural way. On the one hand, this parable indicates that the Judge is sovereign. This means that whether or not He judges is up to Him. Seemingly without reason, He may either listen to the widow or not listen to her. This parable reveals that He is the sovereign Lord and that He judges whenever He chooses. On the other hand, this parable indicates that we need to bother the Lord by praying persistently. We need to say to Him, "Lord, praying is up to me, not up to You. You never told me that I should not pray. On the contrary, You charged me to pray. Therefore, Lord, I am praying now for Your vindication." The significance of this parable is profound, and we all need to know God as He is revealed here. We also need to see that the kind of prayer described here helps us to enjoy the jubilee. (c) 2007 Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Luke, pp. 351-352. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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