Some people are more persistent than others.  Lots of people take the easy way of trying a few times and giving up if they cannot achieve their goal.  For many of us, prayer can be like that.  We may ask half-heartedly and let our praying fade when no immediate answer comes.  Or we pray most earnestly for some time, but eventually we become disheartened and stop believing that God wants to deal with the matter which we have brought to Him.  Jesus taught this parable so that people like us might take fresh courage and keep praying.

The parable is quite raw: a hardened judge who had little interest in justice was confronted by a widow who would not take 'no' for an answer, and eventually he agreed to help her.  This harsh style was probably quite common among the district judges; and the story would have made people smile at the thought that he could be persuaded to do his job by a single determined woman.  She rightly believed that he was the only person she could go to, and that there was no other way except to continue with her requests until the answer came.

That is how we must come to God.  It may seem an elementary lesson in prayer, but unless we learn it, we will experience needless frustration and disillusionment as we follow Jesus.  We pray because we believe that there is nobody higher than God who has the authority and power to deal fairly with our requests.  We believe that God always hears and will always answer, in His time and way.  Like Hannah, the mother of Samuel, we keep on praying because we believe that the matter is important, and that God alone has the answer (1 Samuel 1:9-18).  If we need to continue to pray for many years, we do so because we believe that there is nobody else who can respond to our cry; and we believe that delay has God's love built into it - because He cannot act righteously before the right time (Psalm 88:1).

So, persistent prayer is both faith-displaying and faith-building as we affirm that only the Lord God Almighty has the answer.  This dislodges doubt and confirms our confidence in God's character, His desire and His ability to bring a gracious and righteous conclusion.  Persistent prayer also gives us the best person to share our heart with, as we face the tension of unresolved issues. So, if you have been tempted to give up, today is the day to tell the Lord all about it and trust Him to be your companion until the tension is resolved.