Why To Pray And Not Lose Heart
Do you exercise enough?
If you’re like the majoirty of Americans, you could probably stand to exercise a bit more. We know the human body needs food, water, exercise and shelter to achieve optimal performance. Doctors advise healthy choices like a balanced diet of protein, fat and carbs, and to engage in daily–or at least weekly–physical activity to keep the muscles and bones strong.
But how do we keep our faith strong? Do you feed it a well-balanced diet? Do you exercise it by challenging it and growing it? Wait, wait! How do you exercise and feed faith?
Scripture is the best nourishment possible; the optimal food to sustain us and give us energy. Likewise, prayer is our daily activity; the exercise to make the spiritual “muscles” stronger.
And how do we know what we should pray for, and how long should we pray for it before we give up? Jacob in the Old Testament reading, Genesis 3:22-30 gives us a wonderful answer for both of these questions. In it, Jacob wrestles with God (in the form of a man, therefore the pre-incarnate Christ) and says “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
Jacob seemed to have to wrest the blessing away from God, but we know that God wants to bless us. God’s blessing is to make us righteous, and to forgive our sins. By taking away our sins, He takes away death. By making us righteous, He restores us to the image of God. These things are most certainly worth praying for, and never giving up.
Thanks be to God for cleansing us of our sin!
Here is today’s sermon text from Luke 18:
The Parable of the Persistent Widow
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
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Prayer requests. Bring your prayer requests to Pastor Jenson, Deacon Poe, or Loyd Harris (bulletin typist). They will be printed in the bulletin and prayed in the Sunday service. The deadline is Tuesday. Remember to obtain permission if you bring a prayer request on behalf of another person.