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Bible Reading Plan

Reading Plan:  John 14:12-14

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

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Daily Devotional: Laundry Lists

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. 

Luke 18:1-4

Do you ever feel like God gets sick of your laundry list of needs, and he is tired of hearing from you? Like you are bothering Him? Our Scripture today addresses that same thing. Jesus tells a very strange parable. He tells of a judge who really didn’t care too much about people or God. And then a widow enters the scene, and she bugs him so much about what she wants that the judge fears her and decides to give her justice so she will get off his back. 

Luke wrote, “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” 

At first glance, I missed the part where He told the story to teach his disciples. And if you are like me, sometimes you read fast and misinterpret Scripture. The widow who went to plead her case over and over went to an ordinary man who happened to be a judge.  

So God is not the judge in the story; he is God. And he wants us to bother Him; He wants our hearts, our confessions, our praise, and all of our needs!

In other words, he wants our laundry lists and our bold prayers on behalf of our world, our families, our friends who know Christ, our friends who don’t, and, dare say it, our enemies! Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). Our main goal in our prayers should be that God is glorified, not us! And God always answers if what we are asking is in His perfect will. 

Often, I have big, long, laundry lists of prayers. How can we possibly accomplish this in our sometimes very short “chair” time? 

That’s a conundrum to solve, isn’t it?  

But we actually have a bigger window than just our fifteen or twenty-minute chair time, don’t we? The Bible says we need to ‘pray without ceasing!’ That means we should live our lives prayerfully, look up often for guidance and peace, confess when we mess up, and, of course, thank Him.

It’s a little bit like an ongoing conversation I have been practicing over the past year. We need to be as persistent as the widow. We likely are not consciously talking to Jesus 24/7, but we should have this deep dependence on Him that translates often into these words: “Oh God, please help, or Oh God, thank you so much for loving me.”  

Next Steps

I’m getting better at praying throughout my days. I remember to turn my heart Nearer To God. Remember, He knows our hearts; we don’t even have to say our prayers aloud.