Those of us who make the Lord the portion of our inheritance may come before Him with humble boldness to make our plea. All the more boldness may attend our praying when our plea is based upon His Promise.

I find the long succession of prayers in Psalm 119 most helpful in bringing my own supplications before the Lord. Verse 49—Remember the Word unto Thy servant, upon which Thou hast caused me to hope.Oh, how many are the promises of the Lord that have come to my own soul and have brought with them a strong hope! But, I must say there are times when that hope has been tested to the point that the promise seems to have no substance to it. What then? Am I to let the hope go and seek another resource? The answer is no! Here, I remember Psalm 40:1—I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. The words I waited patiently are very revealing when viewed in the Original. They literally mean, Waiting, I waited... The word waited means to look eagerly, with expectation. Our eager expectation before the Lord must learn the discipline that Jesus taught when He presented His disciples this most unusual lesson on praying in Luke 18.

Let’s read that passage about a widow who was harassed by an adversary. She believed a certain judge could help her, but he kept brushing her off. But, her hope was not dashed. She kept on coming and coming to him. Well, let’s see what the passage itself says:

Luke 18:1-6—Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me!' "

And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. (TNIV)

The point to this parable is that we must not give up when coming before the Lord in prayer. What got the widow’s response from the judge was her continual coming. Hope, made strong by God’s Word, gives us the incentive to pray like that widow “prayed” when she came to that judge.

LORD, give me greater desire to know the promises of Your Word to make me strong in praying. Teach me more about what Jesus meant in the above parable, so I can apply it to my praying. Let HOPE become strong in my spirit.

Another lesson from Jesus along the same line—Luke 11:1-13