And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
A word this morning on not losing heart.
We may now be seriously considering giving up. All our energies have been to little or no avail. We gave of ourselves heart and soul and strength and the world did not budge. Our strength has now faded, our energies flagged, and our spirits crushed. Justice denied.
And then a word this morning from the Galilean: Even cruel men relent. Even hard hearts can be broken, not perhaps by the gentle niceties of the art of persuasion but by the loud pounding of a woman who beats on the door like she has nothing to lose -- nothing save the dignity inherent in each knock which demands, and demands, and demands , "Ain't I a woman?"
And it opens. The closed door opens. The hard heart relents.
And if even the hard heart finally cracks the door for justice, how much sooner and wider the heart of God?
~Ryon Price, 2nd Thoughts
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