Always Pray and Don't Lose Heart

Pastor Tim Franklin, Freedom Christian Center, Melbourne, FL

Luke 18:1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. NKJV.

I love the way Jesus teaches! He tells a parable, and up front He gives the meaning. “I tell you a parable and the meaning is this: Always pray and do not lose heart.” This is one of those, “Hey, I really want you to get this” teachings.

The main question(s) that follow this statement today is: “How do I do that? How do I not grow weary of praying? How do I keep myself from getting tired of the place of prayer? How do I keep myself from getting discouraged or wanting to quit?” Jesus gives us a hint in verse six when He tells us to hear what the unjust judge said. Luke 18:4-5 Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. NKJV

We must not forget that Jesus tells this parable in the context of the end of the age, Luke 17:20-37. It is in this place of urgency that we are instructed to never give up praying. It is urgent that we not lose heart in the midst of circumstances that have the capacity to offend us. The natural progression of the natural man is: Why is this happening to me? Where is God? Why is He not answering? I guess He does not care; therefore, there is no need for me to pray. How do I keep my heart from going to the place of prayerlessness?

Know who you are talking to--Jesus. The woman in this parable is talking to an unjust judge who has no fear of God or concern for men. We are talking to Jesus! The Righteous Judge who delights in the fear of the Lord, Is. 11:3, and who has all humanity in heart, not willing that any would perish.

Don’t forget why you are talking--Justice. The woman was asking for justice! “God, make that which is wrong-right!” Until Jesus returns and sets up His Kingdom on earth, there will be more than enough wrongs needing to be made right in this age. We are to live burdened to see the injustices of this life done away with. This must begin in the place of prayer.

Know that prayer was a priority to Jesus. Jesus, himself, demonstrates the priority of prayer as we watch His life. He is up before the sun praying. He prays long into the night after great ministry success. He was so good at it that the disciples asked Him, “Teach us to pray like that.”
When Jesus returns will He find us in the place of faith. Faith in the midst of trials is real faith! We walk by faith and not by sight. When I have nothing in the natural to look at but His Word, and nothing in the natural to trust, but His Word, there am I in the place of faith, if I do not give way to doubt.

If you know who you are talking to: Jesus-that is intimacy. If you know what you are talking about: justice-that is urgency to see wrongs made right. You will stay motivated to pray. If you know that Jesus leads by example-He is always praying and ever lives to make intercession, you too will pray. When your heart is set on His Word and you believe it—you will stand in faith.

Therefore, always pray and do not lose heart!

Caught with Jesus

Gary Stebbins, Church on the Rock, Melbourne, FL - February 3, 2010

Recently at COTRM we have been talking about the difference between a Dangerous Church and a Safe church. As I read the Bible, I see nothing safe about the New Testament church. The New Testament church was serious about their relationship with God and dangerous to the world around them because they were a threat to their system of unbelief.

One verse has stood out to me as we went through this series ...
Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

Peter and John had been arrested for talking about Jesus Christ. When the Jewish leaders examined them, they were amazed that these were ordinary men with no particular education. What made them extraordinary was that they "began to recognize them as having been with Jesus."

I believe the same is true for us today. If we hang out with Jesus, we are going to be extraordinary people. God takes ordinary people like you and me and makes us extraordinary, and the catalyst for this is spending time with Jesus.

Jesus Himself said this ...
“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3).

The word know means to be aware of, perceive, understand, or recognize. It indicates a relation between the person "knowing" and the object known- i.e., I know God. What this word communicates is that what is "known" is of value and importance to the one who knows.
We spend time with Jesus because He is "of value and importance" to us.

Do I have eternal life? If I do, I KNOW God.
If I KNOW God, I know Him because He is of value to me.
When something is of value to me, I become familiar with it.

Prayer is one of the main vehicles or tools that God has given to you and me so we can "know" God. If someone is of value to us we spend time with them and we talk with them. There is no better way to get to know the heart of God, than through His Word and Prayer.

Is God of value to you? Then PRAY, talk with Him, get to know Him, pause and make room for Him to speak to you. We serve a wonderful, loving God, who wants us to know Him as He knows us.

The Cause of Prayerlessness

Tim Franklin, Freedom Christian Center, Melbourne, FL - January 2010

When one asks, why is this a prayerless generation? There can really only be one answer—We do not know Him.

We have reduced Jesus to a doctrine, a memorized scripture, a system of religious beliefs or rituals and have lost the ultimate experience of a living, dynamic, growing relationship with the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. To have this kind of relationship requires that we have knowledge of Him, not the kind that comes from a book and fills our head but the kind that comes from revelation of Him and fills our heart. This is what prompted Paul to write in Philippians 3:8 “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. NKJV Paul discovered something of Jesus that caused him to want to know more. His road to Damascus experience drove him to the scriptures, caused him to study, and pressured him from an internal witness to know the eternal Son of God. Every discovery led to more hunger to know Him more. The more we know Him personally, the more we study to know more of Him, and the more we study to know more of him the more He reveals to us who He is. This fuels the heart to pray and encounter God. We must know Him not know about Him.