Vision Logo Circle
Vision Logo Circle

Repeat Yourself? Pt 2

by | Tue, Apr 4 2023

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Last time on Foundations we began looking at the issue of prayer and in particular, repeating our prayers which in some quarters is seen as a lack of faith. However, we saw through the example of the prophet Elijah, who knew the voice of God and had seen the power of God demonstrated in extraordinary ways, that he himself repeated his prayers to God on a regular basis.

We also read the parable by Jesus in Luke 18 about the widow and the unjust judge who eventually gave the widow what she requested because of her persistence and at the end of that parable, Jesus said something quite curious. He said, “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” What does that have to do with repeating our prayers? We’ll come back to that.

We ended last time by realising that Elijah wasn’t repeating his prayers because God was slow on the uptake, He wasn’t hard of hearing, He doesn’t suffer from memory loss, but rather, we pray repeatedly for our own benefit because we have to deal with our human nature every minute of every day and praying repeatedly keeps our focus and agreement on what the will of God is. It’s primarily for our benefit as it keeps us remembering what and who is really important and who we can trust.

It’s probably impossible not to mention the Apostle Paul in this subject matter because he himself was an incredibly zealous religious Jew both before and after his conversion…beforehand he was zealous for religious Judaism out of a misguided desire to stop heretics from destroying his religion, which is the impression he had of Christianity, and after his conversion, he was zealous for Christ and the message of the Gospel.

But Paul, probably more than anyone, understood the importance of prayer and his only experience was prayer according to the Old Covenant Scriptures. This is what Paul said about prayer.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, ‘Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’

Have you ever tried to pray without ceasing and not repeat your prayers?

What about when Paul was struggling with his ‘thorn in the flesh’? The Bible isn’t explicit in what the thorn was exactly, some think it was a physical ailment like weak eyesight, it might have been, but in the context of that chapter Paul talks about it, it goes on to detail all the sufferings and persecutions he endured so it’s more likely that the thorn in his flesh was persecution and harassment.

2 Corinthians 12:8-10, ‘Concerning this (the thorn in his flesh) I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He (that is God) said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I’m well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I’m weak, then I’m strong.’

Most of us would agree that being free from all such sufferings would be the will of God and praying for deliverance from such things would be a correct prayer to pray, however in this instance, Paul recognised after praying THREE times, that God was going to use such circumstances and sufferings as a means of demonstrating His strength though Paul’s weaknesses; they were going to be a witness to the watching world both then and now.

Paul taught us to pray all the time, and he also demonstrated that he repeated his prayers, but at the same time, understood that there are times when our prayers aren’t answered the way we want them to be because in the individual life of each individual believer, God has an individual call and plan. We have to have faith enough to pray according to the will of God as laid out in His Word but have trust enough in Him that His perfect will for us may differ according to His purposes.

Back to Luke 18 and the unjust king who finally answered the widows request…God is not unjust, but wants to answer the prayers of His children but He wants us to come to Him often, just like the widow in the parable because He wants to develop faith in us. How do we know this? Because that passage of Scriptures says so.

Luke 18:6-8, And the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”’

Jesus is saying that when His people pray, the Lord will deal with unrighteousness on their behalf and when He comes back again, will He find faith on the earth? Faith to believe, faith to trust, faith to persevere, faith to cling to God’s will comes through constantly coming before God in prayer, trusting His Word and His promises regardless of what you see going on around you. This is not flakey hyperfaith, prosperity gospel or blab-it & grab-it theology, this is about finding the rock of God’s truth and standing on daily, even hourly if need be.

We are to repeatedly read the Word, then we repeatedly pray according to the Word and we build faith daily. When the Lord returns, we want Him to find us as people of faith.

 

Shalom

Mandy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Based in part on an article from oneforisrael.org