Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 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?”

• Luke 18:1-8

“I couldn’t understand how anyone could weep after such a celebration, so I stopped and asked her if she was all right.
“No,” she said, ‘I’m struggling. My mother was baptized today.  I prayed for her every day for twenty years.”
You’re going to have to help me understand this,” I said.
‘I’m crying,” the woman replied, “because I came so close-so close-to giving up on her. I mean, after five years I said, Who needs this? God isn‘t listening. After ten years I said, Why am I wasting my breath? After fifteen years I said, This is absurd. After nineteen years I said, I’m just a fool. But I guess I just kept praying, even though my faith was weak. I kept praying, and she gave her life to Christ, and she was baptized today.”
The woman paused and looked me in the eye. “I will never doubt the power of prayer again,” she said.”

• Bill Hybels, Too Busy NOT to Pray

Have you ever read a parable of Jesus and thought that is a nice illustration, but otherwise, it did not touch your heart?  Have you ever prayed for a lost soul, someone that you have known for decades, praying for them the entire time, and they do not seem to care about their soul?  Have you ever experienced the heartbreak of praying for people for decades and the answer is either “no” or the prayer remains unanswered?

If you answered “yes” to the first question and then “yes” to a subsequent question, you know what this woman’s pain was like.  She was not judging her mother; she loved her mother and she knew her mother needed Jesus.  To watch someone going toward eternal destruction is bad.  To watch someone you love who is going toward eternal destruction and they push the accelerator to the floor is gut wrenching.

That is not judging that person, that is the most gut-wrenching prayers we could ever lay before the throne of God.

And it is up to the individual to see their error and turn to God.

And when that prayer is answered in the affirmative, could we ever doubt the power of prayer?  But we do not always get the answer we request, and yet, prayer is always effective.  It may not change the other person, but it changes us.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.