"While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me." (Luke 18: 4 - 5).
Today, our Great Teacher Jesus uses the parable of the the persistent widow and the wicked and unjust judge to teach us a valuable lesson on persistence in prayer. Note that the unjust and corrupt judge was most probably an atheist. Hence, he has no fear of God or man. But in today's event, he met his match. A poor but courageous widow who had nothing to lose in the battle with the empty headed, corrupt and unjust judge. The widow's strategy was simple. Be persistent. Never give up. She won.
Then Jesus made extraordinary extrapolation from the story. God too can be worn out by persistent prayer. But why does God delay in answering our prayers?
Learn to wait for God in prayer, the saints have taught persistently:
"That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy." (Romans 8: 24 - 25 MSG).
"God grants us not always what we ask so as to bestow something preferable."..... “The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.” (St Augustine).
St Augustine also said that God delays answering our prayer in order to make us ready by enlarging us for a far superior gift which we cannot imagine. How comforting!
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