I absolutely love this passage! Persistence with patience is a beautiful pair. We are reminded that sometimes our prayers are not a once and done sort of thing. God doesn’t necessarily just jump to justice when we first ask. We need to patiently wait for his answer and be persistent in our asking. Jesus gives us this example for a reason.
Now if you are a parent or have taken care of children at any time in your life, you have witnessed persistence at its finest. Children have a fantastic knack of asking and asking for things, like a cookie before dinner, or another glass of water at bedtime. Do we cave in? Do we stand firm? Do we look at the justice being served, or the harm being done, in responding to the request? Continue reading “Luke 18:1-8 – Persistence with Patience”
The kingdom of God – what are your thoughts on this? The Pharisees again are not focusing on the right thing. Many Jews of the time were waiting on a Messiah who they thought would be ultimate power and authority over the rulers of earth, rescuing them from their oppression. They could not see that Jesus was their Messiah. His rescue and reign were not at all as they had imagined.
What do you make of this passage? I have never been able to wrap my head around how only one out of ten came back to say thanks. Didn’t their parents teach them to say “thank you?” The one who did come back expressed his gratitude in such a grandiose fashion! What happened to the other nine?
How much time do we spend talking about sinfulness? It’s a subject we don’t like to think about because we expose ourselves, our faults and our wrong doings. But without exposure, how can we be cleansed. God sees our hearts no matter how much we try to cover up our messiness. When we do face our sin so that we can prayerfully ask for forgiveness, do we look beyond ourselves and pass blame?
