Wearing God out    4/2004

Soon after Kenny Moore and I became convinced of the strategic importance of obeying Jesus' command to "beseech the Lord of the harvest for workers", we realized that we had no clue as to how to actually do this.  Were we just to say the same words over and over day after day?  This lead us to ask the Lord to teach us how to pray this prayer. 

One of the first lessons that He taught us came from Luke 18. You know the story.  A certain widow was apparently being unfairly treated by some "adversary".  She took her case to the local judge.  Being an "unrighteous" judge, this man dismissed the widow.  She, however, "kept coming to him".  Day after day she pursued him until finally he relented and granted her request.  He said to himself, "Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, lest by continually coming she wear me out."  

Luke says that Jesus told this story to "show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart."  Essentially, Jesus is saying, "Pray like that!" (The same principle is also illustrated in Luke 11:5-8.)  The Lord used this story to teach Kenny and me the value of praying "relentlessly" or praying "as though" we were going to "wear God out".   Now, theologically we know that we can't "wear God out". And, we know that God is not unwilling to answer our prayer (after all, He told us to pray 10:2b!).  The reason that we are to pray as though we were going to wear God out is because important things happen to us in the process.  Both Kenny and I would tell you that we are different people because we have been praying this prayer daily for 18 months. 

John White 

Lk10 Community Facilitator