Week 3 – PARABLES
Keep Bothering
– Jay and Andrea Allerton
Here are the parables that jumped out at us, both having to do with persistence in prayer. The parable of the widow and the parable of a friend asking for three loaves of bread at midnight: in both we see that Jesus wants us to be, you guessed it, persistent.
Luke 18:3-4 and Luke 9:10:
There was a desperate widow in that city and she kept coming to the judge and asking him for justice and legal protection from her adversary.
“For a while he refused, but afterwards he said to himself, “Though I neither fear God, nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming” (ESV).
After reading this a few times, I chuckled and wondered why Jesus used this parable (remember I’m new at this) but also because I kept hearing:
Keep bothering, Keep bothering, Keep bothering.
God, You want us to be so persistent to the point of bothering You? I had never thought about it this way; I never stopped to think about it I guess. I haven’t been in a place where I need to rely on faith and prayer like that, or maybe I am in a place like that but don’t know it yet, or better yet I don’t know what it is like to have such trust in Him to know that I can ask and keep asking instead of doing it on my own. What would that look like? Oh Jesus, you are funny! I understand that you want us to have persistent faith, and that you want us to know that you would defend us, hear our cries, and give us justice with gallons of love way faster than even the judge, but I’m secretly hoping I don’t have to find out through some tribulation. Let’s start with small stuff, now that I know that I can ask.
In Luke 11:10, Jesus, You say that if we ask persistently, we receive; and if we keep on seeking persistently, we find; and if we keep knocking persistently, the door will be open. For Jay, this is what stood out, a truth that he acted on since day one of his salvation but through continual trials, got exhausted and had forgotten. Guys, this is awesome: not only can we bug Jesus with asking, but we can also seek, and knock, persistently, and he will take care of us.
If you are feeling like this is not a truth you can grasp, try it. Also try asking Him to give you an open mind so that you don’t get stuck in your own perception of how you think He should be answering your request. Ask Him to give you awareness so you can see his hand in it all. For me, this is already working. I just realized I’ve been wanting to know Jesus intimately, and now I can keep on seeking. Hallelujah, let’s get on with our prayers!