Friday 10 Feb 2017

February 10: Luke 18:1-8

Key Verse: Luke 18:1
Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,

Devotion:
A rather unassuming parable on the face of it, but with such truth we need to seek it out and meditate on it. Christ's foremost reason for this was to teach us we ought always to pray and not to shy away from it for any reason. Far too often in our lives we don't pray because of some reason or another. Maybe we give up hope for some reason – but through God anything is possible. Maybe we don't ask certain things because we think we are not worthy – but God has made sure we are lifted up, just a little lower than the angels! We need prayer, constant prayer, meaningful prayer – because we are talking directly to God!

The initial assumption is that we do pray! For if we are not, then we are not concerning ourselves with God, but rather doing what we think will please Him and expecting Him to do everything else. Whilst God will continue to look out for us, He also wants to hear from us so we are showing Him we are genuine about our needs. Yes, He can see we need things, but by asking Him we are showing humility because we need to ask. If we ask something of our friends in earnest, they may well give it to us; but asking of them a few times will ensure they do listen and remember our request. Once God knows our earnestness, He answers. He wants us to remember that we need to be continually earnest about things and not just to let them be a flash in the pan.

Prayer requires time. Time that we have to set aside from everything else and spend personally talking to God. He cherishes each of those times because it shows we are willing to spend time alone with Him. And through that prayer, God will answer with miracles. This instance when we have a person who neither feared God, nor any person – his mind was changed by God in favour of the woman who otherwise had no hope. God doesn't need people to believe in Him in order to use them for His good!

Points to Ponder:
How fully are friends able to answer your requests?

God is able and just to answer each prayer in full!