So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t he stick up for them? I assure you, he will. He will not drag his feet. Luke 18:7 (TM)

There is a woman who sells advertising for a regional newspaper in our area. As President of my local community theatre, she calls every few months to ask if our theatre wants to advertise an upcoming show in her paper. I never have. Not once. I’m not sure that it’s the right advertising space for our organization, and we have an extremely limited budget. I have told her this.

Yesterday, she called yet again. Her voice was as cheerful as always. It didn’t bother her that I’d turned her down countless times before. She seemed not to care that I’d given her every excuse why we probably wouldn’t advertise in her paper. There she was with a smile in her voice asking me if we wanted an ad in her next issue. Part of me wants to place an ad just to reward her tenacity, her persistence, and that unquenchable enthusiasm in her voice.

I immediately thought of her when I read the parable in today’s chapter. Jesus makes it clear that we are to persist in our prayers with fierce tenacity and persistence. Even when God seems to turn us down or put us off again and again and again, He encourages us to keep coming back to Him in prayer.

Too often, I slink away in discouragement after I don’t get an immediate, positive response to my prayers.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and bgivens.