empowering prayer: persistence

This Sunday is Rally Day. Join us in the Fellowship Hall at 10 o’clock for a light breakfast and learn about our Sunday School classes and learning opportunities starting this fall. We are also celebrating the 100^th birthday of Ginny Staats directly following the 11:00 am service. It will be a fun and full day at St. Johns. Despite all the activity in your life or at St. Johns, don’t forget to pray. Being busy is one of the excuses not to pray, but there are others. There are always reasons not to pray. Why does prayer even matter? In our series Empowering Prayer, the sermon is Persistence. We are using the words of Jesus found in Luke 18:1-8. Luke tells us that Jesus uses this parable so that the disciples will pray and not give up. Jesus ends this section with a startling question: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” At times there is a lot more at stake than we realize. When we are persistent about prayer, then it builds a resilient faith. One that is able to encourage, engage, and inspire ourselves and others. The difference between a struggling faith and a dynamic faith may be found in this simple word, ‘persistence.’ This is not to say that everything is dependent upon us, but without a consistent prayer life, we cannot recognize that it is dependent on God. Or trust God enough to leave things within his care! The widow in this parable is facing stronger forces but she is not giving up. She may be unimportant but she refuses to be unnoticed. When we decide to pray with persistence, then we begin to sense our complete weakness, but we connect to the strength of a small faith that can move great mountains! Our most heartfelt prayer is that you will find the One who can transform your weakness into strength, your doubt into determination, and your dry soul into a fountain of living water as you read Luke 18:1-8.

Luke 18:1-8: 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 what people thought. 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 what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!'” 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)