Thursday, March 3, 2011

Storm the throne of God regularly and relentlessly.

Storm the throne of God regularly and relentlessly.

We find that Jesus commanded His disciples to pray “at all times” (πάντοτε) and to “not lose heart” (μὴ ἐγκακεῖν).

Luke 18:1 reads: Ἔλεγεν δὲ παραβολὴν αὐτοῖς πρὸς τὸ δεῖν πάντοτε προσεύχεσθαι αὐτοὺς καὶ μὴ ἐγκακεῖν (And he was telling them a parable so that they may always pray and not lose heart).

The parable goes as follows. There was a man in a city who didn’t fear God and didn’t respect man. He was a judge (v.2). There was, however, a widow in that city and she constantly came to him and asked this judge for legal protection from her enemies (v.3). To her chagrin, every time she came before the judge, he refused her offer to give her protection (v.4a). But finally, because of her persistence and because of her regularity in coming to the judge with the same request, he finally thought to himself, “Though I don’t fear God or care about humans, I will give her legal protection. For if I don’t, she will wear me out” (v.4b-5).

And the Lord draws this principle from the parable (=short story): if an unrighteous judge gives the requests of his people because of their constant and relentless determination to bring their petition before the judge, how much more will God bring about justice for his elect who “cry to him day and night” (v.7).

Here is the simple lesson Jesus teaches:

Pray regularly - pray at all times (v.1a).
Pray relentlessly - pray without ceasing (v.1b).
Pray expectantly - pray expecting God to answer (v.7).
Pray believingly - pray with an attitude of faith (v.8b).

Do you pray like this? If not, start now in applying the necessary changes to your life so that you begin to storm the throne of God regularly and relentlessly.