Pray Without Ceasing
AM Psalm 102 • PM Psalm 107:1-32
Mal. 3:1-12 • James 5:7-12 • Luke 18:1-8
In the past month I have had a lot of people to pray for and things to pray about. I mean I pray every day, and I have a fairly long prayer list but lately there are people and items that have popped to the top of my prayer time. And they are urgent! I am sure that happens to all of us, but I want to scream “these are really important.” I am trying to be patient, but I find myself a hundred times a day breathing the prayer “God, remember Andy? He needs you now.”* and “God I know I’ve mentioned David before, but please can you help him” and so on and so on. I cannot recall a time in my life where I have had so many people and things that require me to constantly pester God. I have no plans to stop. However, I do hope that my urgent list stops growing. I feel like the “persistent widow”. If God were a human judge, like the one in our reading, I might “eventually wear him out.”
Jesus provides comfort when in Luke’s recount of the widow calling out for help Jesus notes that God will bring about justice “for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night . . . and quickly”. In James we are admonished to have patience like a farmer waiting for the rain and to stand firm. We are encouraged to be like the prophets who are examples of patient endurance. I need these gentle reminders. It’s hard, however, to be patient in the face of the suffering of my many dear friends. I am waiting for the quickly part to kick in.
In the tale of the widow there is a follow-on that I have casually disregarded: “when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on the earth?”. I hope I am praying these prayers with a faith that I will be heard and that they will be answered. When my petitions are placed before God are they signed with faith? I call to mind my last Reflection. It was all about the power of faith. I don’t like to think that my faith is being tested. Maybe right now my faith is not being tested but rather my perseverance. Later in Luke, the Lord took the disciples (absent Judas, of course) with him to the Mount of Olives to pray, and I cannot imagine a more important time for prayer in Jesus’s life. We all know that the disciples fell asleep. I ask why could they not have remained vigilant knowing the serious state of things at the time. Jesus may have thought the same thing. He warns them after finding them asleep at the switch as it were, that that could lead them to temptation. I pray that I can withstand the temptation in my impatience to doubt that my prayers, these very important prayers, are being answered.
Life can sometimes be hard. Faith too, in the face of life’s trials, can sometimes be difficult. However, God’s love for all His creation is never wavering, and God’s patience in the face of our weakness knows no bounds. That knowledge sustains me and gives me the power to endure whatever this earthly life throws at me. I pray that it will do so for you.
* Dear kind Andy died shortly after I finished this Reflection.
Written by Dennis McKinnie
...who hopes he is on your prayer list.