Motivation to Pray From Luke - Part 2 of 2
Rick Ramunno • June 16, 2020
As Luke wrote about Jesus, he seemed to highlight aspects of prayer that the other gospel writers didn’t place as much of an emphasis on. Therefore, this particular gospel is soaked with reasoning and explanation from Jesus as to why we should be so motivated to pray! There is nothing better than waking up in the morning with a genuine desire to seek God in prayer. Now, I will admit that this is not always my state of mind. However, when I struggle to find the will to pray, Luke’s dialogue always seems to motivate me to fight for a heart that genuinely wants to spend time in prayer! I believe that his words will motivate you as well. So, if you feel the need to renew your motivation to pray, crack open your Bible and dive into these passages!
We will look at two motivations for us to pray daily (Read the first motivation here). Feel free to read the passages then read the responses below. I would encourage you to read these scriptures with commentaries. I have provided some quotes and footnotes from my own study on Luke from different sources. A great free academic resource for deep bible study is https://www.blueletterbible.org/ .
Luke 18:1-8
Motivation 2: Power in Persistence
Our next motivation to pray comes out of Luke 18. We often times refer to it as the parable of the persistent woman. In this story, a woman is granted justice against her adversary simply because she kept begging an unjust judge to help her. Even though the judge didn’t care about her, he helped her because he was annoyed at her persistence! Jesus then relates this story to his disciples’ prayer lives by exclaiming, “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?”
Jesus was trying so hard to help his disciples see that if an unjust judge will give this woman what she needs because of her persistence, how much more will our God who loves us in our own persistence!? Walvoord and Zuck put it this way, “Jesus interpreted the parable, pointing out that if the unjust judge would give justice, then imagine how God (the just judge) will see that they get justice, and quickly?”1 It matters to God that we have the faith required to pray persistent prayers whether our prays are answered in a few days or a few decades! All in all, the fact remains, it strikes a core with God when we ask continually about the things that we need and yearn for in our lives. He will give us what we seek in our persistence in accordance with his will!
Question: What prayers have you stopped praying that you could be still be requesting from God? Do you believe that your persistence accesses God’s power?
(John Walvoord and Roy Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary (England, Kingsway Communications Eastbourne, 1985), 249.)