Articles
Requirements of Prayer
Reading: Luke 18:1-17
There is a difference between hearing and listening. The all-knowing God hears everything, but what a blessing it is to know that He leans in to listen to those who are in covenant relation with Him. We call this communication prayer, at it is as simple as it is powerful. In Luke 18, Jesus tells two parables both involving prayer. In these scenes, the Lord shows us some things we need in order to make our prayer life effective as God intends.
The parable of the persistent widow (vv. 1-8) demonstrates our need for commitment and consistency in approaching God. This parable is meant to help us keep praying without losing heart (1). While Jesus ensures us that God does hear and care about His children, seeking God in prayer requires faith in this fact and trust that God will answer in the right way, at the right time. On the other hand, we see in the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector (vv. 9-14) what happens when sinful pride seeps into our prayers. Rather than a fragrant offering to God, these messages turn the attention away from God and onto the person (11-12). We find here another requirement of prayer: humility. How strange, and even alarming, for Jesus’s original audience to consider that they’d rather be like the tax collector than the religious leader—after all, it is the sinner who is honest about his own state and need for God that goes down to his house in a right relationship with the Lord.
Don’t miss what is being requested in the prayers of the two parables: the widow is asking for justice (3, 7), and the tax collector is asking for mercy (13). While we ought to take every need and care before the throne of God, Jesus teaches that the deep spiritual needs of our heart can only be addressed and satisfied by the Father. This requires total dependence and reliance on our Creator; in other words, the requirements of prayer call us to understand our role a child (vv. 15-17) who is eagerly, obediently, and wholeheartedly seeking the Father’s will.
