Thursday: Persistent in Prayer, Sacrificial in Giving
Luke shows how Jesus turned to two widows in order to teach important spiritual truths.
In the first case (Luke 18:1-8), Jesus pitied a poor and powerless widow who was up against a wicked and powerful judge in her fight for justice. She was a victim of injustice and fraud, and yet, she believed in the rule of the law and in justice. But the judge was anti-God and anti-people, and so he obviously did not care to help the widow. Caring for widows is a biblical requirement (Exod. 22:22-24, Ps. 68:5, Isa. 1:17), but the judge took delight in ignoring the law. However, the widow had one weapon, perseverance, and with it she wore out the judge and got her justice.
Image © Standard Publishing from GoodSalt.com
The parable teaches three important lessons: (1) always pray and never get discouraged (Luke 18:1), (2) prayer changes things-even the heart of an evil judge, and (3) persistent faith is a conquering faith. True faith has eternal counsel to every Christian: never give up, even if that means waiting for the final vindication when the Son of Man comes
(Luke 18:8, NKJV).
In the second case (Luke 21:1-4, Mark 12:41-44), no sooner had Jesus finished denouncing the religious hypocrisy and pretension of the scribes and the leaders around the temple that He then pointed out a stark contrast to them: a poor widow who reveals the nature of genuine religion.
Jesus described some of the religious leaders as those who devour widows’ houses
(Luke 20:47, NKJV) and who violate the biblical mandate to care for the widows and the poor. As today, many gave only in order to look pious; and worse, what they gave they gave out of their own surplus wealth. Their giving really involved no personal sacrifice. In contrast, Jesus asked His disciples to look to the widow as the model of true religion, for she gave all that she had.
Show was the motive of the first group; sacrifice and the glory of God was the motive of the widow. To acknowledge God’s ownership of all that she had and to serve Him with all she had was the force that propelled the widow to give her two mites. What counts before the all-seeing eyes of the Creator is not what we give but why we give; not how much we give but what is the measure of our sacrifice.
How much do you sacrifice of yourself for the good of others and for the cause of God?
(28)
Indeed a faith that does not pesevere is unstable and will recieve nothing from God.Faith is the engine of all religeon and it has to be oiled well enough to run the course of the journey.Those that exercise piety to be seen of men will be rebuked by this widow who put in her two mites.God resists the proud but He uplifs those of a humble and contrite spirit.
"The parable teaches three important lessons: (1) always pray and never get discouraged (Luke 18:1), (2) prayer changes things-even the heart of an evil judge, and (3) persistent faith is a conquering faith"
Using a few words to convey a concept is a useful shorthand, however I think after much use the concept is forgotten and the shorthand version is taken at face value. The above statement is an example - it states:
Prayer changes things!
Faith conquers!
Praying is something we do, so are we causing things to change?
We have faith, so are we conquering something?
Of course this is not what the author of the lesson meant!
My point is : let us always be clear who deserves the glory!
We pray to the LORD and He changes things/people.
We have faith in the LORD and He conquers things/people
Yes, prayer, perseverance., and faith is the key to true worship.
Yes infeed faith ought to be persistent but also genuine. From my own experience it is evident that God honors faithfilled, ,consistent prayers. Christians ought to pray always and not be among those who pray in crisis only .For our genuine prayers come before the Father as sweet incense before His throne.
The second widow gave all she had by sacrifice being an example of God who gave all He had His Only begotten Son Jesus Christ, in our giving of time , treasure or talent. We too can emulate giving all we have that God may be glorified and this gospel may be prached to the world so that the kingdom of God may soon come.
Very well stated! How many of us Christians are guilty of only pouring out our hearts & petitions to God ONLY when crisis arise. May God help us to truly commune with him daily as a child to a father. After all that's who he is...."our daddy" đŸ™‚
Two widows teach us: persistency and sacrifice are words/attitudes what we are always trying to escape from but are the keys to spiritual success!
Our sacrifice must be genuine and without hypocrisy.
Our much effort exerted into God's work should be faith based lifestyle
and that is alive through constant prayer life. More prayer more power of faith.
The parable of the two widows teaches us important lessons that are key to spiritual success.
Our prayers are to be as earnest and persistent as was the petition of the needy friend who asked for the loaves at midnight. The more earnestly and steadfastly we ask, the closer will be our spiritual union with Christ. We shall receive increased blessings because we have increased faith.
It is the motive that gives character to our acts, stamping them with ignominy or with high moral worth. Not the great things which every eye sees and every tongue praises does God account most precious. The little duties cheerfully done, the little gifts which make no show, and which to human eyes may appear worthless, often stand highest in His sight. A heart of faith and love is dearer to God than the most costly gift especially in this part of our world where widows are not well taken care of.
Perseverance and persistence in prayer is:
An indication of growing in Christ,and Christ been formed in us.
An increasement of the level,magnitude,degree,strength and qualities of God in us.
An act of God likeness or Christlike traits of Christ performed by the prevailing of of the holy spirit in us.
A process of renewing and strengthening of the inner person or man of our spiritual nature,though the out ward man of our physical body is faced by or with circumstances,challenges,the cares of the world"s material things,and by the cruelties of the adversary of our souls.
The spiritual fuel and food for the strengthening and keeping strong of the human flesh of our minds that is weak,so to retain the thoughts of God in the mind of our intellectual,emotional and will powers of the brains.
The hosting,holding,housing and harboring the life of god in our human temple (our body is the temple of god)
The submitting and surrendering of the weakness of the human flesh of our minds unto God in all things that surround and involves his way of worship, working, walking, watching, and waiting in his will for us as individuals,families and as a united church, especially.
The indications and evidence of the reality of the hope and joy of the gift of present salvation through Jesus Christ our lord and savior.
Summary:persistent in prayer is the striving and or surviving of the holy spirit which is received and reflects in our human cooperation with God.and is therefore a gift of manifestation.
Concerning the poor widow in the temple. I believe there is yet one other reason why she gave what she did and I will use another widow in the Bible to demonstrate it. She is the one that Jesus spoke of in Luke 4:26 while at Nazareth. We find the story in 1 Kings 17 at a time when there was a great drought brought on by the pronouncement of Elijah.
To me that sounds like the way Jesus handled the woman at the well but the story gets more interesting.
This is not a good outlook on life; she was at the end of the rope so to speak so she is in total despair and looking at the end of both her and her son's life. As they say when you're flat on your back there is only one direction to look. She did what Elijah asked of her but why did she do it?
There are several possibilities:
1) She was under the command of God to do it (verse 9).
2) She had faith in Elijah and believed in what he told her.
3) She attempted to buy God's grace by way of a sacrifice.
4) She was so despondent that to her it really didn't matter, to her she and her son were going to die and the only question left was how soon.
I will reject the first out of hand because, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17 NKJV) so God doesn't force people against their will even under the worse case scenarios (Dan 10:13). The second is questionable, faith is built on evidence and what if any evidence did she have from a total stranger. It is the same problem we get into with the call by the sea when a few disciples dropped everything, left their job and their father and followed Jesus. But that was after they had an abundance of evidence to drive their faith. The third is the pagan way of worshipping and serving God by appeasement which is something that shows up at times even within the ranks of Adventism. Being a Gentile in a Gentile area that could have been the motivation but I think there is perhaps a better explanation which is the fourth case.
She did it because it really didn't matter and she might as well help someone rather than die doing nothing. I would like to suggest that sort of thing might be at least a partial explanation for the poor widow giving her last two mites to God or like Samson who could think of nothing better to do at the end then to commit suicide by taking down the walls of the place where a large crowd was gathered as an act of "righteous" judgment against the Philistines.
So, what do we do when we are up against the end with nothing else to look forward to? As Jesus said on the cross, "Father,`into Your hands I commit My spirit'" (Lk. 23:46 NKJV), what else is there?
Tyler. I think you may have overlooked the most important explanation in both cases. These women acted out of self-sacrificial love. And, in the case of Elijah, because God knew the widow's the heart, He knew that Elijah's request would not be denied.
If these were both simple cases of "nothing left to lose," I don't think God would have put them in the Bible.
I know you wouldn't want to reject the word of God, Bro Tyler. Maybe we don't fully comprehend God's application of the word "command" in the Bible. God used the same phrasing with respect to the "raven"- "I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there"1Kings17:4.
With the widow -"I have commanded a widow there to provide for you"v9.
Did God infringe upon the right and liberty of the ravens? He obviously used more than one raven. The Lord Jesus considered every will and wish of His Father as a command. "I know that His commandments is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak, just as the Father has told me". John 12:50. He considered His journey to the cross a command which He obeyed.(John 14:31). Christ has commanded us to "Love your enemies". We don't consider that an infringement of our rights or curtailment of our liberty. As a matter of fact we have been liberated in order to "love our enemies"; we have become sons of God.
The ravens were liberated from they penchant for greediness to freely providing food to someone in need. Same with the widow. She was liberated from being doomed to die from starvation (having no food) to provide for someone in need. That's God's work. We know that with God's every command is His enabling. God works His will in His people.
An aside - God has saved everyone He has saved against his will.
Right now, Kenny, there is a lot agitation in the world over the rights of animals. There are countries including the US that either have said or are in the process of saying that animals have the same rights as humans to the point that to have a pet and confine it in some way is tantamount to enslavement and therefore illegal - that also goes for raising animals for food. Are we to assume that animals and humans are on equal grounds? Are both free moral agents who have consciousness who can argue on issues of philosophy, morality and understand law?
When scripture says, "'Come now, and let us reason together,' Says the LORD" (Isa. 1:18 NKJV) is it really saying do as I say or else as though there is no freedom of choice? Is God really like Satan who compels the conscious against one's will who threatens rather than pleads? Colporteurs for years have used Lk 14:23 as marching orders but I don't think they always understand that Jesus was not saying that we should force anyone into the church. We are to use logic and reasoning along with appropriate evidence to convince them so that they would make the right choice because they see it as the truth. That is what I think it means to compel them.
I would like to suggest, therefore, that while the woman had freedom to choose the ravens did not. While I cannot absolutely prove it through scripture I believe that serving other people was the woman's way of life. That is something God knew and therefore gave Elijah a high degree of probability of having a haven of protection. Was it possible for her to say no? Yes, I believe it was unless we would like to believe in predestination which I don't. To me for her to say no would be against everything she was just like it was with Dorcas (Acts 9:36). So why should she be a hypocrite at the last day of her life and deny the very thing that she was, as I said, "she might as well help someone rather than die doing nothing."
You said, "God has saved everyone He has saved against his will." Does that mean that you believe that everyone will be saved regardless of their choice?
The word commanded in 1kings 17:9 caught my attention also. The Hebrew is tsaw-vaw meaning to enjoin or constitute. I see it as similar to,instruction. The way that she referred to God as "your God", would indicate that she didn't believe in or worship Elijah's God. It wasn't until the miracle 1Kings 17,18,23,24, became evident that her mind was changed. Of the options listed, I would have to go with verse 9, in that the word commanded is the only Biblical option.
Commanded! Is that how love works, by commanding and ordering another person around? Whatever happened to leadership, that is, one who goes before the sheep instead of pushing them out in front (Jn10:4)? When Jesus told His disciples not to lord it over people He used Himself as an example, "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve" (Matt. 20:28 NKJV). If by seeing the Son we see the Father then what can we expect of the Father or the Holy Spirit who works under the Father as Jesus did? I also wonder if the disciples saw a dictator in Jesus rather than the leader He said He was. What do you think?
Over the span of the last century we have had opportunity to see firsthand what dictatorships do to people and it wasn't a pretty sight. It was Satan's kingdom in full bloom - the same commanding, ordering mindset that put Christ on the cross because He didn't do what was wanted. The question to me is, is that what God's government is like? Does it work in the same way as Satan's government? The point is crucial. What kind of a God do we serve and what kind of a government is He running?
All things belong to God. The ravens and the widow are God's servants who faithfully and "cheerfully" executed God's "command" with the power and authority imparted to them. God's servant, Elijah , was in need of food and He called upon His other servants to prepare a meal for him. When Israel was besieged by enemies at times God "commanded" His angels, our servants, to deliver them. How does someone show up with food at the door of the needy who prayed moments before for food except by the "command"of God.
Having faithfully carried out God's "command" both ravens and widow prospered.
I'm always moved by the story of the unjust judge, because Jesus used it to illustrate that we should pray and not give up. Think about this...this guy neither feared God, nor regarded man....yet he eventually gave in to the wish of the widow for justice so that she doesn't wear him out...just to make her go away...now what is God like? 1 John 4:8 says God is love, not weariness, or regardlessness. In the Lord's prayer, God is our Father, not an unjust judge or a stranger...so if she can prevail with an unjust authoritarian stranger who just wanted to shut her up, how much more can we prevail through persistent prayer towards a loving Father who wants the best of good things for His children
our extremities are God's opportunities! I believe it is only when we are ready to say to God - I have nothing left in my hand to bring, only to Thy cross I cling that He can show us what He would have us to know, provide for us in ways we know are only from Him.
When you sit at a dinner table with nothing in your cupboards and thank Him for the food you are about to receive...knowing that without Him providing there is NO food...then you get a knock at the door with soup, bread, fruit...that is faith.
When you thank Him for the food you have cooking on your stove, that is not faith...that is knowing. These ladies gave believing they would give their all. And God rewarded their faith.
It is only mankind that is in willful rebellion against God's will...God can even command the winds and the seas to obey Him. Adam and Eve were commanded not to eat that fruit, but they ate it. Jesus commanded the unclean spirits and they came out, yet it was not a saving command for the demons, since they remain in rebellion against God and on the side of satan...I'd like to suggest that they could even have refused to obey and continued to stand in the presence of Christ's holiness, but to do so would've been a repulsive experience for them since they had become so wicked. Are we so holy in God's sight that demons cannot stand to be around us? We have a choice to follow God like that.