The following sermon was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on October 16, 1983. The title is, Keep Praying, Don't Lose Heart, and the scripture reference is Luke, Chapter 18, Verses 1-8a. 

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke. I'm reading from the 18th chapter beginning at the first verse. And Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

He said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Vindicate me against my adversary. For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.

And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God vindicate His elect who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them?

I tell you, He will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? The Gospel of the Lord.

Most of the parables of Jesus are very straightforward comparisons, in essence saying this is like that. And they're fairly easy for us to understand because of that. Jesus says God is like a father of a prodigal who longs for the return of his rebellious son.

And when he sees him coming, he rushes to greet him and welcome him, And he kisses him and puts a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. We can understand the comparison. The kingdom of heaven is like a little leaven that eventually leavens the whole lump.

Just let it work. Be patient. God is doing His thing.

Agape love is like the Samaritan who sees a man lying in the ditch and he stops and he does something about it. That's what love is like. This is like that.

The Word of God is like good seed scattered abroad, and it grows according to the quality of the soil on which it falls. We understand that sort of thing. That's the way most of the parables are, a very simple, straightforward comparison.

But three of the parables operate on a much more sophisticated level, and because of that, they're somewhat confusing to people. they involve not only comparison, but also contrast. We think of the parable of the unjust steward.

You remember the story? It's a rather strange story. He's about to be kicked out of his employment, and so real hurry up fast, he goes around and reduces the debt of a whole bunch of people who owe money to his employer.

And in the process, he's currying favor with them so that when he loses his job, he's got a number of places that he can go and he'll be welcomed. And you sort of scratch your head and you say, what is the point? You read that casually and it sounds as if Jesus is almost saying the end justifies the means.

Or that dishonesty can, at least sometimes, work out to be ultimately profitable? What is he saying? Well, in the midst of the comparison, you see there's a contrast.

It's as if he's saying, look, if even somebody like this wretched, dishonest, self-centered, scheming, conniving steward can use money, other people's money, to secure His own well-being, how much more ought you and I, who belong to the Lord Jesus, use our money to secure others' well-being? That's a whole different kind of a parable, isn't it? You've got to really think about that one.

the other two parables that are somewhat like that are both on the same subject they're both on the subject of prayer and they're both very alike we read one of them just a moment ago the widow pleading with the unrighteous judge in Luke 18 the other one is back in Luke 11 it's very similar it's the story of a man who goes to his neighbor in the middle of the night and begs for bread because a friend of his has just arrived from a journey and he's hungry. And in both cases, the point is identical. Neither the judge in this story, nor the neighbor in the other one, wants to respond out of the goodness of his heart or the legitimacy of the request, but eventually because of the importunity, that's a great word, the importunity of the demand, the incessant nagging, badgering, cajoling, annoying, they finally give in.

The judge says, as though I fear neither God nor regard man, yet because this widow bothers me. It could literally be translated, she's wearing me out. She's beating on me.

I'll give her what she asks all the wrong reasons but I'll give her what she asks and in the other story Jesus says of the neighbor though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend yet because of his importunity he will give him whatever he needs but once again if you read these things casually you might conclude that God somehow like an unrighteous judge or a reluctant neighbor. Surely that can't be what Jesus is saying. Does God need to be badgered and cajoled and bothered into answering our prayers?

That does not square very well with what Jesus had to say in the Sermon on the Mount. Over there He said, your Heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask, and He cares more for you than He does for the birds of the air or the lilies of the field, so don't be anxious. I suggest to you that once again there's a contrast in the middle of the comparison.

It's as if He's saying that even a judge, even a judge like this one who cares for neither God nor man, or a neighbor who wants only to be left alone, if even they will eventually respond to legitimate, persistent requests, how much more? How much more will your Heavenly Father meet the needs of those who put their trust in Him? How much more?

And yet I think it's even more subtle than that. Because the real point of the parable is not what is God like, but what are we like. More specifically, what is our praying like?

The parable is not primarily designed to tell us something about God. The parable is designed to encourage us in our prayer life. That's what Luke says.

He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to lose heart. It's not primarily telling us something about God. It is primarily telling us something about us.

And I wonder if you realize how tremendously relevant that is. Do you know that virtually every Friday evening, as we come to the end of the service and we invite people to come up to the rail for prayers, of course we do that on Sunday morning as well, but I'm usually at the door, so I don't know what happens on Sunday morning, but Friday evening, as we're praying with people, virtually every week, somebody will come up to me and they'll say, I'm not sure I should be here. I don't know if I should pray for this.

I've already prayed for it once, and I've been taught that to pray again for the same thing exhibits lack of faith. Have you ever run into that? Anybody run into that?

that is an amazingly widespread teaching in the church today. That what you should do is ask once, and then after that, confess that you've got it. Whatever it is, confess that you've got it, even though you don't see any evidence of it.

Confess that you've got it until you do. So if you've prayed for healing and you're not immediately healed, confess your healing until it becomes a reality. If you've prayed for money and you're still really in financial difficulty, confess your prosperity until you've got it.

Have you run into this? I submit to you that that is diametrically opposed to what Jesus has just been teaching us. Now let me tell you, there is a place for making that kind of positive confession.

And the place is very specific. When God does something, then stand on it. If God touches your life, if God does heal you, then proclaim it.

Or if God gives you specifically, personally, you know the Holy Spirit of God is speaking to you and He gives you a promise that He's going to do something, then confess it. God has told me He's going to. But I don't find this kind of confessing something into reality in the teaching of Jesus, I find exactly the opposite.

The point of the parable is not that God is like an unrighteous judge. The point of the parable is that sometimes it feels that way. Sometimes it feels that way.

We've been beating our fists bloody, pounding on the door of God's throne room. And it seems as if He doesn't care. And Jesus says, I know what that feels like.

And I know what you're tempted to do. You're tempted to give up. You're tempted to lose heart.

And I tell you, don't lose heart. Keep praying. don't claim that you've got it before you've got it keep asking till you get it now let me tell you something it not only is diametrically opposed to what Jesus teaches it is diametrically opposed to what Jesus himself practiced do you remember in the garden in his moment of greatest need he prayed three times not once Three times he prayed, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Just think if he asked that once and then confessed it into reality. That means he would not have died for our sins and we'd be going to hell. But he prayed three times until he got an answer.

And the answer happened to be no. the answer happened to be no I'm not going to take the cup away if you love me and if you love my people then you will drink this cup and Jesus drank the cup he prayed for a certain blind man one day and the man was partially healed it said his eyes were partially opened and he could see suddenly human forms but they look like trees to him. I see men as trees walking. And Jesus did not say, well, confess your healing until it's complete, my son.

He prayed again. The man was healed. St. Paul says, I prayed three times that a certain thorn in the flesh would be removed.

Not once. I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed. He prayed until he got an answer, and interestingly enough, the answer in that case was also no. I don't know what the thorn was and it doesn't matter.

But God in essence said, I'm not going to take that away, but I am going to supply you with sufficient grace to cope. And in the process, St. Paul discovered the most important lesson of faith, Which is not that there's a magic formula that will get you what you want, but that God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. That God's strength is perfected in our weakness.

That God's grace was sufficient for Him to cope. How many of you know that as we persist in prayer, God perfects our prayers? Do you know what I'm talking about?

you start out asking for something because as far as you can see that's the way it ought to be that makes perfectly good sense I can't see any reason why God would not want to do that and we start praying and it doesn't immediately happen listen, if you don't opt out in one direction and look for the magic formula or opt out in the other direction and lose heart altogether you keep praying keep the dialogue going God will begin to shape that prayer begin to shape your attitude you begin to see that God may have something else going on at a different level God has another agenda in that situation you weren't even aware of it thank God that He doesn't always answer our prayers the first time we pray Him with the limited insight that we have my father prayed for 15 years that God would heal him of multiple sclerosis. And he got worse, and he got worse, and he got worse, and he died. But in the process, he came to the point of entrusting his life to God.

And he discovered salvation in Christ. And just before he died, he said to me, I wish I were well, but I wouldn't trade it for anything because in the process, I've discovered the only thing that's truly worthwhile. Thank God that He didn't heal him.

then he'd go to hell. I wish he could have done both. Healed him and brought him to salvation.

But if I had to choose, I'd take salvation any day. And so would my father. The Roman Catholic Church considers Monica to be a saint because she prayed so persistently for her young son whose name was Augustine.

and at that point he was a totally carnal rebel and she prayed for him and she prayed for him and above all else what she prayed for him was Lord don't let Augustine go to Rome because Rome was a moral cesspool first chance he got where do you think he went? went to Rome and that's where he became a Christian and eventually Saint Augustine thank God that He didn't answer Monica's prayer. Or did He?

Isn't it lovely that God can see beneath the words, can see beneath our surface understanding, can see the real heart's desire, and more than our understanding, He meets the real need. The story is told that Galileo went to the tomb of St. Anthony to pray. And he wanted to pray for riches for himself and long life and health for his family.

And he got there and he began to meditate on the life of Anthony. And he started to pray for those things, his own selfish desires, and he began to see they were totally unworthy. Do you know what he ended up praying?

Lord, would You illuminate my mind with some new insight that will benefit mankind? Because God shapes our prayers. sometimes we pray I hope we pray foolishly selfishly short sightedly and the answer isn't immediately forthcoming or at least it doesn't seem to be and we lose heart can anybody identify with that?

And Jesus says, keep praying. That's all it is. Don't give up.

Don't lose heart. Keep the dialogue going. Folks say, how long should I pray?

Very simple answer. Pray till you get an answer. Pray till you get the thing you're asking for or until God tells you why not.

Jesus prayed three times till He got an answer. It was no. Paul prayed three times until he got an answer. It was no. Pray until you get an answer.

Pray until you get the thing you ask for or God gives you the faith to believe Him for it or there's a clear and definite no with an accompanying insight. Or keep praying. The New Testament says pray without ceasing.

Don't stop. Don't stop. Francis McNutt speaks about soaking prayer.

soaking prayer. The fact that most of the time it's not a once over lightly, it's a matter of continually raising the person for whom we're praying up before the throne of God and believing that he's doing a work even though it may take some time. Leighton Ford commented that there's not one single instance in all of history of a great move of God, a great revival of faith that isn't undergirded and supported and accompanied by deep, persistent, important, importunate prayer.

I'll tell you, we can give away half our budget at this church and it's going to make very little difference unless we're developing calluses on our knees at the same time. You can't pick up a single piece of missionary literature without reading about the role of prayer warriors. Folks who are called to pray.

James says you have not because you ask not or you ask amiss I don't know of any way to learn about prayer except by praying and I suggest to you that the word of Jesus Christ himself this morning to each one of us is just simply keep praying keep praying If you've tried it and given it up, or it's tapered off, or it's become perfunctory, you go through the motions on Sunday and that's about it, renew your prayer life. Make a decision right now that I'm going to renew my prayer life by the grace of God. Make yourself a prayer list.

Put down on a piece of paper folks that you ought to be praying for. You know what? Very quickly the list is going to become longer than you can cover on a single day.

You're going to have to spread it across the days of a week or perhaps the days of a month. Keep a notebook and watch how God begins to answer prayer. That will become one of the greatest encouragements to you.

One Lenten season, I kept track of every single prayer I prayed. Wrote them down. Came to the end of the month, the end of the 40 days.

Do you know what had happened? God had answered in the affirmative every prayer but three. One, there was a clear and definite no. And two, all the evidence wasn't yet in.

And I hadn't even noticed until I went back and reviewed. Because we're so quick to offer up our requests. And then like the nine lepers who wandered away and didn't even say thank you for their healing.

we forget how gracious God has been that will encourage you keep a prayer notebook and go back and see the things you prayed for week after week day after day God has begun to answer do you know what Karen and I have prayed for a couple of things in relationship to the ministry here for more than five years and God began to answer them last year just before the nine o'clock service a man told me that he'd been praying for his daughter that she'd come home like the prodigal for five years. She came home this week. Praise God.

Set aside time each day for some conversation with God. And please, let me make this suggestion. Don't go out of here and say, yep, He's right, I'm going to do it an hour a day.

There's no way will you do it an hour a day. But go out of here and say, I'll set aside five minutes a day. And keep that appointment for one month.

and I suspect that five minutes will grow to ten and maybe fifteen and God will begin to renew your prayer life get involved in your shepherd group if you're not already involved there because shepherd groups have a continual adventure of prayer together one of the groups prayed this summer that God would teach them something about loving and now one of the members in that group is very very unwell and they're praying for him but in the process they're discovering something about loving and they're discovering something about prayer come next Friday evening and spend the night in prayer we have an all night vigil once a month come and pray do something But don't stop praying. Because if we leave off praying, if we lose heart, there could be a tragic answer to Jesus' last question. When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?

See, we're not talking about mastering information in a book. We're talking about developing a living relationship with a living God. And the heart of that is getting to know Him day by day in prayer.

Let's bow our heads together. Lord Jesus, somehow we find it easier to schedule anything else in our lives but quality time with You and the Father. Somehow the first thing to go is our prayer time.

I pray for myself, for every member of the body of Christ here in this place, that You will help us in our desire and our resolve to renew our prayer and to get to know You better in the midst of it. So we ask it in Your name. Amen.