Persistant Prayer

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Luke 18:1-8

When I was a child I spent many weekends at my best friend Ronnie’s house.  As he lived across town, it was too far for a kid to walk on his own.  I needed a ride to get there.  As my parents worked on Saturday, I would often have to wait for Ronnie and someone from his house to come and get me.  Ronnie would arrange that on his end.  We’d be on the phone and he would say “Pops says he can come get you.  We’ll be there in a few.”  The assumption was a few minutes.  I would stand at the living room window watching and waiting.  An hour would pass, an hour and a half.  I’d call again wondering where they were.  “He says we’ll leave in ten minutes.”  Another hour or so would pass while I stood staring out the window, watching and waiting.  I’d call again.  “We’re on our way.”  Another hour or so goes by.  I’m not exaggerating.  I spent many Saturdays, morning and afternoon, staring out that window waiting.  I’d call again.  “Are you coming.”  “Let me go check what’s up.”  I’d hear them bicker a bit in the background.  He’d come back to the phone. “Leaving now.”  A half hour later, he would show up with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend to get me.  Watching and waiting.  I wonder if I would have ever made it to his house if I had not kept calling.  I have no idea.  I don’t know what was going on Ronnie’s end of things.  Was his dad forgetful or had something more important going on. I don’t know.

Looking at our reading, this continual and persistent praying seems to be what faithfulness is and it almost seems like hope.  Jesus asked his disciples that rhetorical question, “When the Son of Man comes will he find faithfulness on the earth?”  That question comes at the end of a parable in which he was teaching them about their need to pray persistently so that they do not lose hope in God and fall away.  Jesus knew that being his faithful disciples in this world that crucifies its hope was going to get tough for them.  It was going to be quite difficult to live faithfully, which is to live according to hope by showing unconditional and forgiving love and steadfast commitment to Christian fellowship.  He likened this task to the hopeless impossibility of a falsely accused widow seeking vindication for her tarnished honour by going to a crooked judge who just likes to see people put to shame.  You ask and you wait.  You ask and you wait.  You ask and you wait.  You ask and you wait.  You keep at it until you’ve gotten on the judge’s (God’s) nerves enough that he grants your request.  That getting on God’s nerves part is probably Jesus showing a sense of humour, but we get the point.  We can relate to that widow.  So often when we pray, we do so wondering what it's going to take to get some action out of God, but then in time, God does act.

Praying continually and persistently is necessary to having faith and being faithful.  Apart from it, Jesus warns his disciples that they would fall into what we translate rather weakly as discouragement or a loss of heart. I’m going to get your Greek lesson out of the way quickly this morning.  The word Jesus uses quite literally means “in evil doing.”  The word is enkakeo (Those who like playing with Spanish homonyms think en caca.) and there are two senses in the way it gets used.  It can be either “to treat others badly or evilly” or “to wrongly cease doing something” meaning to quit on people or to leave fellowship for wrong reasons.  So, without this habit of continual, persistent prayer Jesus’ disciples will fall into the evil of a discouraged heart that leads them away from Christian fellowship or even to turn on it and treat it badly.

For time’s sake, instead of tracing this parable out in depth I’ll just go straight to the point and say that there is a correlation between Jesus’ disciples learning to pray continuously, persistently and the continuance of Christian community on earth.  Without this discipline, the habit of continual prayer among the disciples of Jesus, the church perishes.  It is in prayer that the personal faith, hope, and love that are the seeds of Christian community take root and sprout.  In prayer by the working of the Holy Spirit God changes us, transforms us to be in the nature of his children, Christ-like as Jesus is his Son.  As children trust their parents for everything, so prayer makes us look to our Father in heaven and trust him for everything. 

So, what is continual, persistent prayer?  Well, what goes on in our heads anyway? All of us worry.  We worry instinctively.  Apart from worry, we usually just let our minds go on in their own little worlds of imaginary conversations around emotions we can’t quite name.  Sometimes we get ideas.  A few of us can actually sit and think and sort things out.  Mostly, we just let our minds get preoccupied with whatever.  Continual, persistent prayer is taking control of our thought world with prayer, focusing on the things of God rather than the things of me. It’s how we turn over to the things in life that most concern us…again and again until God sorts it out.  Let me give you some other suggestions for continual, persistent prayer.  

First, there is finding a specific prayer to pray over and over in those times when we’re just letting our minds graze the green pastures of nattering, persistent, intrusive thoughts.  I like the Lord’s Prayer for this.  “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” and so on.  I pray this prayer and think about what it means quite a lot, especially “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”  If I wake up in the middle of the night, I wait and listen if anyone in particular comes to mind then after that I just keep saying the Lord’s Prayer over and over in my head until I fall asleep.   When I’m exercising or cooking dinner or working in the yard or driving or grocery shopping, I pray the Lord’s Prayer over and over.  In fact, if I were laid up in the hospital or lying on my deathbed, praying the Lord’s Prayer over and over would likely be where my mind would be.

A more mission-oriented way of doing continual, persistent prayer would be to walk around our neighbourhoods praying for everyone.  Figure out when people are most active and get out there so you can actually see them and hear them.  There’s also actually talking to our neighbours and finding out what’s going on in their lives and keeping it in mind and praying about it.  If they are worried about something, bear that worry with them through prayer.  If they are okay with it, pray with them.  When we’re out and about we can take notice of the people around us and pray inwardly, “Lord, bless that person.”  If we see a young family walking a baby carriage up the street, if you’ve had kids you know what they’re going through, pray for them.

 We can make our homes prayer hubs.  Anybody that comes into our homes does not leave without us having first prayed for them.  This is especially so for our children and grandchildren.  If you start a ministry like that, be prepared for in time people will start coming to you. 

Some of you might be thinking “that’s what ministers are supposed to do.”  No, it’s what we do.  We pray.  That’s faith, faithfulness, loyalty, fidelity.  Prayer is the inroad of the Kingdom of Heaven coming to earth.  When people in churches take up this habit, this ministry of continual, persistent prayer, churches change because God begins to change the people in them.  If we are to take Jesus seriously in this passage, it is when we, his followers, depart from praying continually and persistently that churches become social clubs, or go into survival mode and die.  

So, if Jesus were to return today and come to this church would he find faith?  Would he find us praying?  Let us not forget that our God is not an unjust judge.  Our God deals in things like healing, hope, restoration, reconciliation, forgiveness, and even resurrection.  Let us not fall into the evil of disheartenment that destroys Christian fellowship.  Take up the work of continual, persistent prayer. Amen.

 

Continual Prayer

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Luke 18:1-8

When I was a child I spent many weekends at my best friend Ronnie’s house.  As he lived across town, it was too far for a kid to walk on his own.  I needed a ride to get there.  As my parents worked on Saturday, I would often have to wait for Ronnie and someone from his house to come and get me.  Ronnie would arrange that on his end.  We’d be on the phone and her would say “Pops says he can come get you.  We’ll be there in a few.”  The assumption was a few minutes.  I would stand at the living room window watching and waiting.  An hour would pass, an hour and a half.  I’d call again wondering where they were.  “He says we’ll leave in ten minutes.”  Another hour or so would pass while I stood staring out the window, watching and waiting.  I’d call again.  “We’re on our way.”  Another hour or so goes by.  I’m not exaggerating.  I spent many Saturday morning and afternoon staring out that window waiting.  I’d call again.  “Are you coming.”  “Let me go check what’s up.”  I’d hear them bicker a bit in the background.  He’d come back to the phone. “Leaving now.”  A half hour later, he would show up with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend to get me.  Watching and waiting.  I wonder if I would have ever made it to his house if I had not kept calling.  I have no idea.  I don’t know what was going on Ronnie’s end of things.  Was his dad forgetful or had something more important going on. I don’t know.

Looking at our reading, this watching and waiting and persistent praying seems to be what faithfulness is and it almost seems like hope. Jesus asked his disciples that rhetorical question, “When the Son of Man comes will he find faithfulness on the earth?”  That question comes at the end of a parable in which he was teaching them about their need to pray persistantly so that they do not lose hope in God and fall away.  Jesus knew that being his faithful disciple in this world that crucifies its hope was going to get tough for them.  It was going to be quite difficult to live faithfully, according to hope by showing unconditional and forgiving love and steadfast commitment to Christian fellowship.  He likened this task to the hopeless impossibility of a falsely accused widow seeking vindication for her tarnished honour by going to a crooked judge who just likes to see people put to shame.  You ask and you wait.  You ask and you wait.  You ask and you wait.  You ask and you wait.  You keep at it until you’ve gotten on the judge’s (God’s) nerves enough that he grants your request.  That getting on God’s nerves part is probably Jesus showing a sense of humour, but we get the point.  We can relate to that widow.  So often when we pray, we do so wondering what it's going to take to get some action out of God, but then in time, God does act.

Praying continually, persistantly is necessary to having faith and being faithful.  Jesus says that if we don’t pray continually we are likely to fall into what we translate rather weakly here as discouragement or a loss of heart.  I’m going to get your Greek lesson out of the way early this morning.  The word Jesus uses there for loosing heart quite literally means “in evil doing.”  The word is enkakeo (Those who like playing with Spanish homonyms think en caca.) There are two senses in the way the word gets used.  It can be either “to treat badly or evilly” or “to wrongly cease doing something” meaning to quit on people or to leave fellowship.  So, without this habit of continual prayer Jesus’ disciples would be in danger of falling into the evil of a discouraged heart that leads them away from Christian fellowship or even to turn on that fellowship and treat it badly.  There is an integral link between prayer and staying in the body of Christ.  

There is a correlation between Jesus’ disciples learning to pray continuously and the continuance of Christian community on earth.  Without this discipline of prayer, the habit of continual prayer among the disciples of Jesus, the church, Christian fellowship, perishes.  It is in prayer that the personal faith, hope, and love that are the seeds of Christian community take root and sprout.  In prayer by the working of the Holy Spirit God changes us, transforms us to be in the nature of his children, like Jesus his Son.  As children trust their parents for everything, so prayer makes us look to our Father in heaven and trust him for everything. 

So, what is continual prayer?  Well, what goes on in our heads anyway? All of us worry.  Worry is a matter of instinct.  We just do it.  When we’re not worrying, we usually just let our minds go on in their own little worlds of imaginary conversations around emotions we can’t quite name.  Sometimes we get ideas.  A few of us can actually sit and think and sort things out.  Mostly, we just let our minds get preoccupied with whatever and we exhibit very little in the way of reigning in our thought world.

The discipline of continual prayer leads us to get control of our thought world with prayer rather than giving free rent to worry or mindless rambling.  It is unlike the Buddhist way which is to try to empty the mind of any thoughts at all.  It is also unlike the practise of mindfulness where we just be aware of our surroundings and take inventory of our inner worlds and try to self-sooth or positive self-talk the hurtful stuff away.  Prayer leads us to place our lives into the hands of the God who made us, who knows what’s best for us, and who will lead us to healing and restoration. Here’s some examples of continual prayer.  

First, there is finding a specific prayer to pray over and over in those times when we’re just letting our minds graze the green pastures of nattering thoughts.  I like the Lord’s Prayer for this.  “Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” and so on.  I pray that prayer and think about what it means quite a lot especially “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”  It reminds me to want what God wants for me, for the people I care about, and for the world.  If I wake up in the middle of the night, I wait and listen if anyone in particular comes to mind for whom I should pray.  Then after that, I just keep saying the Lord’s Prayer over and over in my head until I fall asleep.   When I’m out for a walk or cooking dinner or working in the yard, I try to pray the Lord’s Prayer continually.  In fact, if I were laid up in the hospital or lying on my deathbed, praying the Lord’s Prayer continually would likely be what you would find me and my mind up to.  

A more mission-oriented way of doing continual prayer would be to pray for everyone you see as you go about your day.  When we’re out and about, we can take notice of the people around us and pray inwardly, “Lord, bless them.”  If we see a young family walking a baby carriage up the street, if you’ve had kids, you know what they’re going through.  Pray for them.  There’s also actually talking to our neighbours and finding out what’s going on in their lives so that we can keep it in mind and pray about it.  If they are worried about something, bear that worry with them in prayer.  If they are okay with it, pray with them.  

 We can make our homes prayer centers.  Anybody that comes into our homes does not leave without us having first prayed for them.  This is especially so for our children and grandchildren.  If you start a ministry like that, be prepared for in time people will start coming to you. 

Prayer is our simplest form of participation in working along with God in making things here on earth as they are in heaven.  When people in churches take up this habit, this ministry of continual prayer, churches change because God begins to change the people in them to want what he wants, to see as he sees, to listen as he listens, to be as he is, and to do as he does.  

So, if Jesus were to return today and come to us would he find faith?  Would he find each of us praying?  God is not an unjust judge.  Our God deals in resurrection, in healing, in restoration and will act accordingly to answer our prayers.  Know this, if there is something in your life that is really hurting you, instead of worrying, pray it continually to God.  Eventually, you will get a sense that God is with you in the struggle and that he is working on it.  Watching and waiting and keeping on calling back through what seems God’s delaying is what faith, faithfulness is.  Continual praying, watching, and waiting.  Continual praying, watching, and waiting.  Continual praying, watching, and waiting.  That’s living faithfully.  There’s a peace there like no other.  Life doesn’t come free of suffering.  If you’re happy all the time you’re likely on something.  But, there’s this peace in Jesus that is found in prayer.  Amen. 

Praying...It's What We Do

Luke 18:1-8

It is a startling fact about people like us that if we are diagnosed with a life threatening condition that will end our lives in the next few years and a change in habits would remedy the situation, 80% percent of us will do nothing.  Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to develop.  Even when it is a matter of life and death we don’t like to change our habits.  Well, without sounding like a snake-oil salesman I would like to tell you about a change in habit that’s not likely to make you live longer, reduce your stress, or overnight deliver you contentment, but it will help you to be faithful, to endure. 

Faithfulness, Jesus asked his disciples that rhetorical question, “When the Son of Man comes will he find faithfulness on the earth?”  That question comes at the end of a parable in which he was teaching them about their need to pray continually so that they do not lose hope in God and fall away.  Jesus knew that being his faithful disciple in this world that crucifies its hope was going to get tough for them.  It was going to be quite difficult to live faithfully according to the hope of his coming by showing unconditional, forgiving love and steadfast commitment to Christian fellowship.  He likened this task to the hopeless impossibility of a falsely accused widow seeking vindication for her tarnished honour by going to a crooked judge who just likes to see people put to shame.

Praying continually is necessary to having faith and being faithful.  Apart from praying continually Jesus’ disciples would fall into what we translate rather weakly as discouragement or a loss of heart. I’m going to get your Greek lesson out of the way quickly this morning.  The word Jesus uses quite literally means “in evil doing.”  The word is enkakeo (Those who like playing with Spanish homonyms think en caca.) and there are two senses in the way it gets used.  It can be either “to treat badly or evilly” or “to wrongly cease doing something” meaning to quit on people or to leave fellowship.  So, without this habit of continual prayer Jesus’ disciples will fall into the evil of a discouraged heart that leads them away from Christian fellowship or even to turn on it and treat it badly.

For time’s sake, instead of tracing this parable out in depth I’ll just go straight to the point and say that there is a correlation between Jesus’ disciples learning to pray continuously and the continuance of Christian community on earth.  Without this discipline, the habit of continual prayer among the disciples of Jesus, the church perishes.  It is in prayer that the personal faith, hope, and love that are the seeds of Christian community take root and sprout.  In prayer by the working of the Holy Spirit God changes us, transforms us to be in the nature of his children, Christ-like as Jesus is his Son.  As children trust their parents for everything, so prayer makes us look to our Father in heaven and trust him for everything.

So, what is continual prayer?  Well, what goes on in our heads anyway? All of us worry.  We worry instictinctually.  Apart from worry, we usually just let our minds go on in their own little worlds of imaginary conversations around emotions we can’t quite name.  Sometimes we get ideas.  A few of us can actually sit and think and sort things out.  Mostly, we just let our minds get preoccupied with whatever.  Continual prayer is taking control of our thought world with prayer.  Let me give you some examples of continual prayer. 

First, there is finding a specific prayer to pray over and over in those times when we’re just letting our minds graze the green pastures of nattering thoughts.  I like the Lord’s Prayer for this.  “Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” and so on.  I pray that prayer and think about what it means quite a lot especially “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”  If I wake up in the middle of the night, I wait and listen if anyone in particular comes to mind then after that I just keep saying the Lord’s Prayer over and over in my head until I fall asleep.   When I’m out for a run or cooking dinner or working in the yard I pray the Lord’s Prayer over and over.  In fact, if I were laid up in the hospital or lying on my deathbed, praying the Lord’s Prayer over and over would likely be where my mind would be.

We can also make our Prayer Covenant prayer a means of continual prayer. “Lord, grant Bob and me the grace to commit our lives to the lordship of Jesus Christ without reservation and further grant Bob and me the grace to know your strength and guidance today.”  Pray that over and over throughout the day.

A more mission-oriented way of doing continual prayer would be to walk around our neighbourhoods praying for everyone.  Figure out when people are most active and get out there so you can actually see them and hear them.  There’s also actually talking to our neighbours and find out what’s going on in their lives and keep it in mind and pray about it.  If they are worried about something, bear that worry with them through prayer.  If they are okay with it, pray with them.  When we’re out and about we can take notice of the people around us and pray inwardly, “Lord, have mercy on him.”  If we see a young family walking a baby carriage up the street, if you’ve had kids you know what they’re going through, pray for them.

 We can make our homes prayer centers.  Anybody that comes into our homes does not leave without us having first prayed for them.  This is especially so for our children and grandchildren.  If you start a ministry like that, be prepared for in time people will start coming to you.

Some of you might be thinking “that’s what ministers are supposed to do.”  No, it’s what we do.  We pray.  That’s faith.  That’s heaven coming to earth  When people in churches take up this habit, this ministry of continual prayer, churches change because God begins to change the people in them.  If we are to take Jesus seriously in this passage, it is when we, his followers, depart from praying continually that churches become social clubs, or go into survival mode and die. 

So, if Jesus were to return today and come to this church would he find faith?  Would he find us praying?  Let us not forget that our God is not an unjust judge.  Our God deals in resurrection.  Let us not be part of that 80% who do nothing and fall into the evil of disheartenment that destroys Christian fellowship.  Amen.

Cry out! God Hears You!

Text: Luke 18:1-8

           Being a widow in Jesus’ day was no cake walk. Because they were women, widows had no inheritance rights. If they had sons, the husband’s estate was passed onto them. This was the widow’s best bet for she would go along with the estate. If she had no son’s the husband’s estate including her would be passed onto the closest male kin. Usually, the estate was taken and the wife rejected. This left the widow suddenly without resources. Moreover, there was a religious superstition overshadowing widows. Most believed that if a woman’s husband died before he was old then he was being punished by God for some unknown sin and thus the punishment should be passed on to his widowed wife as well. This often led to the ill-treatment and exploitation of widows. Begging was often the only recourse for a widow.

           Regardless of what God’s people did to widows, God himself had great concern for their plight. The prophet Jeremiah quotes the LORD saying, “Leave your orphans; I will protect their lives. Your widows, too, can trust in me" (49:11). Isaiah even quotes the Lord saying that he will bring vengeance on those who abuse the orphan and widowed, “See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her-- but now murderers! Your silver has become dross; your choice wine is diluted with water. Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them. Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: "Ah, I will get relief from my foes and avenge myself on my enemies. I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities” (1:21-25).

           That sets the stage for Jesus' parable here in Luke's Gospel in which he uses a widow’s persistent pleading with a wicked judge to grant her justice against her enemy as an analogy for his disciples to pray continually and not to give up. The parable immediately follows Jesus giving to his disciples a rather cryptic description of his death and then his second coming and he paints a picture of the time between the two being a difficult time which will try their faith. The parable seeks to say that the disciples’ prayers and their relationship to the Trinity are not like an exploited widow having to continually pester an unrighteous, uncaring judge as the only means for her to receive justice against her enemy. Instead God the Father does indeed care for his chosen ones and will speedily work justice for them against their enemies.

The Triune God of grace hears us when we cry out and does indeed work in our lives to put things to right for us, but maybe not so speedily. It often takes time, quite a bit of time. The image that the New Testament Greek implies is that God has to work it out, to make the justice come about in our real lives. It is not just a simple decree. There must be time for consequences to play out. People must take responsibility for their actions. Therefore we are to pray continually while we wait and not give up on the Trinity in whom we abide.

For further definition of what it is to pray I took a tour of the word “prayer” through Luke’s Gospel to see what sort of thing the people in Luke’s world prayed for and how they prayed. Since Jesus tells us to pray continually I think it would help to know what sorts of things we should occupy our prayers with and how and why. Luke’s first mention of prayer is when Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, went into the Holy of Holies in the temple on the Day of Atonement while people stood outside praying. While in there, an angel appeared and told him that his barren wife, Elizabeth, would bare a child (1:10). This shows a correlation between the people of God praying before and during worship so that those who lead worship will hear a message about what God is really doing in the life of his people.

Next, after Jesus was baptized by John he stood there in the water praying and Luke says heaven was opened so that we catch a glimpse of God, the Trinity – Jesus the Son in the water, the Spirit descending as a dove, and the Father saying this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased (3:21-22). Here we see a correlation between prayer and knowing that in Christ through the abiding of the Holy Spirit the Father does indeed claim us as his own beloved children. God the Father loves us as he loves his only begotten Son, Jesus, as we are in familial union with him because the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us.

Next, we discover that Jesus often slipped away to wilderness places (5:16) and up onto mountains to pray. One night Jesus spent a whole night on a mountain praying and when he came down he chose the twelve disciples (6:12). Another time Jesus was praying alone with his disciples nearby and he asked them who the crowds said he was. In the conversation Peter makes the confession of faith that Jesus was the Messiah from God (9:18). Thus, we see here that there is a correlation between prayer and knowing one’s calling and who it is who calls us.

Another mountaintop experience was when Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a mountain with him and while he was praying they saw him transfigured in shinning white standing with Moses and Elijah. Immediately following that experience we have a another Trinitarian revelation. A cloud (the Holy Spirit) enveloped them and God the Father spoke to them saying that Jesus was his Son whom he had chosen and they should listen to him (9:28). Thus there is a huge correlation between prayer and knowing who Jesus is and what he has come to do for all humanity and even you and me as individuals and once again we see that prayer is a Trinitarian experience with Christ in the Holy Spirit before the Father.

          What does Jesus say we should pray for? In the first instance he says “Pray for your enemies” (6:28). Once while Jesus was praying his disciples saw him and came and asked him to teach them how to pray and he taught them the Lord’s prayer. “Father, in heaven hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but deliver us from the evil one." This is a good prayer to try to discipline yourself to pray continually. Another thing to notice here as that when people see us praying it just might happen that they become inspired to pray and want to learn how to pray. In our passage today Jesus tells us to pray always crying out for the Trinity to work justice for us against our enemies (18:10).

Next Jesus talks of attitude in prayer. In the passage immediately following this morning’s reading, Jesus condemns the prayer of the self-righteous where we thank the Trinity for how great we are and how good we have it and reminding him of all the good we do and so forth. Have you ever prayed saying “God I’ve down this and that and this for you and I try to be the best that I can be. Could you please do this for me?” That’s praying on our merits of which we really have none. Rather, Jesus tells us to pray the tax collector’s prayer of humble desperation, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Actually in the Greek it says, “God, be for me, a sinner, a sacrifice that removes my sin.” If we get used to praying like that continually we find that the rest of our lives truly do begin to fall into place. In the Eastern Orthodox traditions that have what they call the “Jesus Prayer” that they continually recite. It goes, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”

Finally, when Jesus entered into the Garden of Gethsemane with Peter, James, and John he instructs them to pray so that they do not fall into temptation and they joined with Jesus in his prayers. They joined with Jesus in his prayers. They fell asleep albeit, but they joined with him in his prayers. Did you know your prayers are never separate from the prayers of Jesus who stands continually before the Father praying for us? His prayers become our prayers and our prayers become his.

To wrap all this up, and emphasize a main point for you, Jesus tells us to pray continually and not give up because it is primarily in prayer that we meet Jesus in the Holy Spirit and in him we share his prayer life before God the Father. People who pray a lot have a deeper sense of who God is as Trinity and who Jesus is, what he’s done for us, and what he calls us to. It takes prayer to know God. Without it we simply won’t come to know the living God whom we claim to serve. So, pray continually and don’t give up. Cry out for God the Father hears you and your prayers as he hears Jesus' own prayers. Amen.