In Luke 18:1-8 Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow. The reason for the parable, Luke says, is "to the effect that [Jesus' disciples] ought always to pray and not lose heart."
Well, its football season. The thought of persistence and football brings to my mind an immediate image. Charlie Brown never quitting on his endeavor to kick the football that Lucy keeps pulling away from him at the last minute.
God has always honored persistence. I have always appreciated Emmitt Smith. I'm a Steeler fan, which means that I am by default never fond of the Cowboys. Still, I was glad when Emmitt Smith set the NFL rushing record. He was never as exciting to watch as Walter Payton or Barry Sanders, and he never possessed true break-away speed. But he was durable--persistent. He just kept running. He ran for 18,355 yards. That’s nearly 10.5 miles! It took him 15 years to run 10.5 miles. Now, when you say it like that it doesn't sound like much. Afterall, any of us could run 10.5 miles if given 14 years to do it. The big difference is, he had 11 huge defensive players trying to knock him down every step of the way. Emmitt’s average run over those 10.5 miles was 4.3 yards at a time. That means he was knocked down 4,268 times. And, every time he got back up and ran the ball again. Sure, he was injured a few times, but he always returned. It's quite impressive to think that someone would be knocked down more than 4,000 times and keep getting up to try again. How many of us give up after being knocked down just a few times?
Even the best of people get knocked down in life, but what sets them apart from the quitters is that they get right back up. Life is full of adversarial people who will tackle you. You will face difficult circumstances that trip your feet out from under you. The poor widow in Jesus’ parable had been knocked flat–but she refused to stay down. She got up and persistently made her request to the judge. This is the image that Jesus gives us for prayer to our Father in Heaven. No matter what, keep praying. Never lose heart. When our prayers don's seem to be answered...keep praying, never lose heart. Too many of us feel knocked down by God when our prayers aren't answered immediately or exactly. We give up on God, lose faith and stop praying.
Here's a very fitting video for this message. It's called the Persistent Quarterback.
There’s more to all of the masculinity in this message filled with football than just
a timely reference. In the gospel reading it’s a widow who is the image of
persistent prayer. I kind of wish Jesus would have used
the image of a young father, or husband. You see, because I’d be willing to bet that in most of our real
life experiences, in most of our homes, it’s the wife or the mother who is the persistent keeper of prayer for the house. But, in the scripture we encounter Jesus exhorting his disciples to pray persistently. In other words we have Jesus, teaching other men the value of an active prayer life.
So, today, I want to encourage the men reading this to be spiritual MEN, not
spiritual wimps.
REAL MEN PRAY!
By doing so, they lead their families and homes in prayer by modeling prayer to their children, and by making prayer an active function of the
man’s role within the home. Too many
men, today, are gutless when it comes to spiritual leadership within the
home. Jesus calls us to be spiritual
leaders, not dictatorial leaders, but servants, like He was with His
disciples. The real message behind the
message is that Jesus was a man, taking charge of a group of men, and calling
them to pray persistently alone, with each other, and for each other.
Jesus gave his life so that we would have faith in God, through
him, to save us from all that comes our way. This faith is most evidently, and powerfully practiced when we
pray.
And what a gift is the gift of prayer…
It keeps us linked us to our Heavenly Father, sends temptation
running, and opens us up to hear God’s direction for our lives.
Wherever you go, whatever you do, do so with prayer.
Amen
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