Luke 18. “And he [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought to always pray and not lose heart” (18:1). I don’t know about you, but sometimes I lose heart and feel like God is slow in responding to my prayers. It can be easy to lose perspective and get all wrapped up in the mini drama of the day.

Jesus tells a short parable in the opening of Luke 18 to remind us to keep praying and not lose heart. There are two characters in this parable (18:1-8), a judge and a widow. The judge is not a good character, he does not fear God and has no respect for humankind. He ignores the pleas of the widow and fails to fulfill his duties as a judge, to bring justice to the aggrieved. The widow has suffered some wrong, and she has no power or place in society – all she has is a persistent willingness to keep pleading for justice and mercy. Eventually the judge grants her mercy, mostly so she will stop annoying him and ruining his reputation by crying out that he is an unjust judge.

Here is the main point of the parable – God is not like the judge. God is kind and good, He is responsive to those who cry out to Him, He is concerned about justice and mercy, and He is not slow about responding to prayers. Jesus says of God, “Will he delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily” (18:7-8). Remember Jesus’ teaching on prayer from Luke 11? That was another story about a friend knocking on his neighbor’s door at midnight because he needed bread. The point of that story was the same – our heavenly Father gives good to us; He knows our needs and if we ask, He is delighted to give to us.

The Luke 18 story is often titled the Parable of the Persistent Widow (which she was) but I think that leads us to think that it is our persistence that finally badgers God into doing something. While being diligent in prayer is important, the greater lesson of the parable is that God is good, and He is not slow about responding.

Note that this parable is linked to the previous text in Luke 17 in two ways. First, Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed…” (17:20). We lose heart in praying because we cannot see things happening. But God is often working in ways that we cannot see, that is why we must trust Him and not lose heart.

Secondly, we forget to say thank you for what God has already done. Like the nine lepers who did not return to say thank you (17:11-19), we lose heart because we forget what He has already done.

In the movie Finding Nemo there is a blue fish named Dorie who cannot remember things that just happened, she has short-term amnesia of sorts. In my family, when you forget something that just happened, someone will helpfully holler, “Hey, Dorie – remember that…” When I get stressed out that I have a drama God is not responding to, what I need is for someone to yell “Hey Dorie, did you forget all that God has already done?!” I need to be more like the leper who returned to say thank you to Jesus for what He had done. Saying thank you is an important part of keeping perspective in prayer, it helps us remember that God is good, and He is at work.

Do you struggle in prayer? Maybe you struggle just making time to pray. Or maybe you do spend time in prayer, but you lose heart when it seems like nothing is happening. How does this reminder of the character of God encourage you? Can you look back and say thank you to Him for how He has already worked? What stood out to you from Luke 18?