People of Faith

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

PEOPLE OF FAITH  

Luke 18:1-8

18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' 4 "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'"  6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" 

NIV

We may not have to delve into the parable to find the truth because Luke has made it clear the meaning of this parable from the introduction. However, there is a parallel between an unjust judge and the just Almighty God. The reason we consider the judge to be unjust is that we are told he neither feared God nor cared about people. There can be no plainer example of people who do not fear God, who then could be called pagans, in one sense, or evil sinners in another sense, who live solely by their own desires and for their own benefit. On the other side of this coin is God, who cares deeply for people, so much so that He sent his Son to die on the cross so that we would be able to have the perfect justice of God, in fact, God, through Jesus, satisfied His own justice. So we need no more justice from God except because we believe in Jesus, we have accepted him as our Lord and Savior and He told us that we can ask the Father anything in his name and he will do it. We are simply to be living in a state of prayer, or in constant communication with God. It would make perfect sense that if we are always talking and most importantly listening to God, our needs, or petitions would be seen quickly. We should have no need to wear God out. It is interesting the Greek word hupoopiazoo which is translated as wear him out, means a blow to the face and gives that person a black and blue spot, like a black eye. We would never have a need to give God a black eye over a need we have, for God already knows our need before we ask, and because He loves us deeply, beyond measure, unlike the common perception of most of us believers God will say, “No, not now”, “wait” or simple “No”, “Maybe” or in the rarest of times, “Yes”, He desires to give us the best and wants the most for us and is willing to give us want we ask for. But then that demands faith, and when Jesus returns will He find us living with faith? Will He find us transformed by faith? When we become people who believe in our hearts, without doubt, that God will speak to us, answering us, “Yes, of course, I was waiting for you to ask me”, then Jesus will find us people of faith.