In 2006 a $2.5 million study concluded that prayer has no power to heal. Heart patients were in 2 categories: one group was prayed for and the other not. After 30 days, there was no significant difference. In fact, the group that was prayed for had more complications – possibly because they thought they were so bad people were praying for them. However, several involved in the study expected these results. One man said, “This shows you shouldn’t try to prove the power of the supernatural… science is powerful and wonderful in determining the orbit of the Earth, the speed of a bullet, the power of a new drug. But now we’ve asked science to study something that occurs outside of space and time.”
I believe that God many times heals in answer to prayer. But this study does raise an interesting issue that many of us have experienced. Sometimes when I pray about something, nothing appears to happen. And on a few occasions, things got worse. I have often felt that my prayers were a worthless endeavor.
Jesus tells a story, a parable, for the specific purpose of encouraging us to be persistent in prayer. A widow kept badgering a judge until he helped her. Jesus uses this story not to compare God with the judge, but to contrast God with this judge. If a judge who doesn’t care and has no connection with this woman will answer her pleas, won’t God who loves us and is our Heavenly Father answer our prayers? The answer is YES.
Here’s the story:
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:1-8)
What lessons can we learn from this story about persistence in prayer?
1 – If we don’t pray, we will faint.
Only two choices are available to us. Either we pray or we faint. When life is hard, prayer provides a way for us and God to face our problems together. Otherwise, we are on our own. This woman had no one to turn to. She didn’t have a husband or children who could defend her. She had no money or influence. But she did possess a tongue and knew how to use it.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.”
We need to stop fretting and complaining, and take our worries to God. God gave us prayer as an antidote to worry and stress. Set aside special times to pray in the morning, even if it’s no more than five or ten minutes. And then keep a running dialogue with God throughout your day. Redirect all of your worrying energy into prayer. Turn complaints into a steady stream of petitions to God.
2 – Don’t be discouraged by God’s delays.
The teaching of this parable is that we must continue in our prayers, even when there seems to be no answer, because God, unlike the unjust judge, is loving, good, and gracious. We persist in prayer not because we have not yet gotten God’s attention, but because we know He cares and will hear us.
Sometimes silence means that God’s answer is a loving no. Sometimes the silence means that God has a bigger answer in store than we could ever have dreamed of or asked for. Sometimes the silence of God is meant to instill dependence upon Him. Sometimes the silence is a delay to allow our prayers to mature. Don’t be discouraged at God’s delay to your prayers.
This week I read again the story of George Muller of Bristol whose life story remains a powerful testament to the virtue of persistence in prayer. Near the end of his life, he confided to a friend that he had been praying for two men to come to Christ for over fifty years. When the friend wondered why he continued to pray, Muller replied that if God had given such a burden, surely it was because he intended to save those two men. It came to pass that one man came to Christ shortly before Muller died, and the other came to Christ shortly after his death.
Be prepared for a certain level of frustration when you pray. God probably will not answer your requests like you might hope. He is creative, endlessly resourceful, sovereign, and stubbornly interested in your spiritual growth. You will not receive all that you ask for, but you will develop spiritually and you will grow in wisdom. And, as that happens, you will suffer less anxiety and enjoy greater godliness.
3 – Keep praying until you get an answer from God.
Unless you see that Jesus is pointing out contrasts in this parable, you will get the idea that God must be “argued” or “bribed” into answering prayer! God is not like this judge; for God is a loving Father, who is attentive to our every cry, generous in His gifts, concerned about our needs, and ready to answer when we call. The only reason the judge helped the widow was because he was afraid she would “weary” him, which literally means “give me a black eye”—i.e., ruin his reputation. God answers prayer for His glory and for our good, and He is not inconvenienced when we come.
We should be like the 3-year-old boy (that Paul Harvey told about) who went to the grocery store with his mother. Before they entered the grocery store she said to him, “Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask.”She put him up in the cart & he sat in the little child’s seat while she wheeled down the aisles. He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section. He saw the chocolate chip cookies & he stood up in the seat & said, “Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you not even to ask. You’re not going to get any at all.” So he sat back down.They continued down the aisles, but in their search for certain items they ended up back in the cookie aisle. “Mom, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you that you can’t have any. Now sit down & be quiet.”Finally, they were approaching the checkout lane. The little boy sensed that this may be his last chance. So just before they got to the line, he stood up on the seat of the cart & shouted in his loudest voice, “In the name of Jesus, may I have some chocolate chip cookies?”
And everybody round about just laughed. Some even applauded. And, due to the generosity of the other shoppers, the little boy & his mother left with 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies.
So the lesson of this parable is to have enough faith to keep on praying until you get an answer from God. God is not like that unjust judge. If He puts off an answer to your prayer, it’s not because He doesn’t love you or doesn’t care what happens to you. He’s working things out for your good (Rom. 8:28), and until He works everything out, He wants you to keep praying and keep trusting Him for the answer.
A fictional story might help you. A man had a dream that he went to heaven. In heaven, St. Peter was showing him around the mansions. He saw a giant warehouse full of boxes. When asked what this was, St. Peter responded, “These are all the answered prayers that God was ready to send, but His children quit asking.” I hope you are persistent in your prayers.