How Grace Enables Us to Persevere in Prayer

What do we persevere about?

Luke 18:1-8 (NIV)
     Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3And 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, 5yet 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!' "
 6And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8I 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?"

1. We persevere so that our heart and emotions can breakthrough and have time to catch up with God’s revelation of grace

2. We persevere by waiting for our circumstances to catch-up with God’s gracious promises and not losing heart while we wait

Genesis 3:1-9 (NIV)
      Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

Resist the subtle heart and humor attitude of diminishing the truth and promises of God in the Bible

There is humor that is humble and elevates everyone while there is humor that elevates self and puts others down

3. The deepest destruction we have adopted from the devil is to question the goodness, grace and love of God for us

Because we find it difficult to believe the grace, goodness and love of God, we are always hiding and hiding from ourselves and from others

Because God graciously accepts me, I can stop running and hiding by being vulnerable and gratefully laugh that even as sinner, I am so loved and accepted

4. And if I am so loved and accepted by such a gracious God, I also know I can persevere in pray confidently knowing that He hears my prayer…

1 John 5:15 (CEV)
     And if we know that God listens when we pray, we are sure that our prayers have already been answered.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NLT)
     Always be joyful.  Never stop praying.  Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

I am grateful to Tim Keller, from whom much of this sermon came from…