AP

Luke 18:7-8   “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?  I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.  However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Significantly, these words of Jesus recorded by Luke are in the context of the parable he told to drive home his statement, “that [we] should always pray and not give up” (1).  They align with many other such unconditional promises from our faithful Lord and Saviour: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8); “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:13-4, cf also John 15:7, 16; 16:23).

Yes, these are wonderful promises for us to take hold of in faith.  But what about all our daily experiences of what seems to us to be unanswered prayer?!!  How can we make this fit?

The Apostle Paul helps us to come to grips with this apparent conundrum.  He encourages us to trust fully in the absolte goodness, wisdom and sovereignty of our God who is our loving Heavenly Father – in every circumstance we experience through life.  Paul reminds us: “… in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).  so, in this context, the ‘quickly’ in today’s verse means that, as we cry out to him in with our urgent prayer requests, God is already acting to bring about his good purposes, for our good and for his glory.  While ever I remain confined to this broken world with my limited knowledge and understanding I don’t have his ‘big picture’ where all Jesus’ promises and Paul’s claim are true.

In the meantime, I am required to do two things: firstly, to trust God, even when ‘simply trusting is the hardest thing of all’ (from ‘I will trust my Saviour Jesus’ – CityAlight Music); and secondly, to keep on persisting in prayer, which is not only the main point of Jesus’ parable behind today’s TQW verses, but is also the point of the Greek verb tenses in Jesus’ commands in Matthew 7: “Keep on asking and it will be given to you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For the asking one receives; the seeking one finds; and to the knocking one, the door will be opened.”

“Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh; teach me the struggles of the soul to bear, to check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh; teach me the patience of ‘unanswered’ prayer”  (George Croly).

– Bruce Christian