GOD'S GOLDEN BOWLS

Brent E. Pollard

In Luke 18: 1-8, Jesus gave the parable of the persistent widow to teach us not to lose heart and to continue praying. In Luke 18:8, however, Jesus concludes the parable with a sobering question: "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (ESV) In other words, despite His admonition to pray, will His followers lack the faith to pray, as they ought?

Admittedly, sometimes it is hard to pray. Perhaps guilt prevents us from praying. We feel too sinful to pray. That, friends, is a scheme successfully employed by the devil to take away one of our most powerful weapons! As he confronted Jesus in the wilderness with the perversion of Scripture (cf. Matthew 4:6; Luke 4:10, 11), so, too, does he confront us with such twisted interpretations of Isaiah 59:1 and 2 John 9:31. In other words, he convinces us that God is not going to listen to us because there is sin in our life. The question that immediately comes to mind, though, is, "When is there not sin in our life?" (cf. Romans 3:23) No, friends, God's face becomes "hidden" to us so that He does not hear only when we habitually sin and fail to repent, as we should. That is the meaning of Isaiah 59:1 and 2 John 9:31. The Israelites were steeped in idolatry. They refused to repent. Thus, God was letting them know that until they repented He would no longer hear their prayers nor offer them His Providence and Protection. 2 John 9:31, on the other hand, was spoken by an uninspired man regarding the general belief of those of his day. Notice he said, "We know (emphasis mine-BP) that God does not listen to sinners." To who does this, "we" refer? The former blind man is speaking of the adherents of the Jewish faith. The first century Jews commonly believed that God did not listen to sinners. If God does not hear such prayers, however, He would have never heard the prayers of the alien sinner, Cornelius (cf. Acts 10:4). If you are not praying because you feel too guilty to do so, humbly bow before the throne of God today and reclaim the privilege that is yours because of your adoption as a child of God (cf. <