In this quick teaching, Matthew goes through Luke 18 to find the keys Jesus gives us to be faithful in prayer.
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"We won't pray until we hear His word, and He won't delay when He hears our prayers."
When you look at this story in Luke 18, you first have to understand that this isn't a comparison - it's a contrast. He's saying that if a widow can get a judge who is openly unjust to grant her justice, how much more will God, our Good Father, answer our prayers? It's important to understand that we are approaching a loving Father, and not an angry judge, when we pray. In Luke 11, He touches on this again contrasting earthly fathers and our Heavenly Father.
So the secret here would appear to be that when it comes to prayer, it's not understanding prayer itself that matters as much as understanding Who we're praying to.
We also have to pay attention to who God says we are - we aren't coming as a widow, or a slave, but as a son or daughter. We have a relationship with God that gives us access to come close to Him and lay out our requests.
Then, He connects consistent prayer to having faith. You can also catch that thought in Romans 10:17 - the idea that faith is being aligned with His Word. What that means is, we're reading the Bible and and believing it, so we are praying it - and that builds faith. Who God is, who we are, and what He wants to do on the Earth are what we find in the Bible that we have faith in. So that's what we pray and how we pray.
What is God's justice that it says He'll pour out? It's His kingdom coming down. As He comes, He will confront evil and injustice in the world and in our own hearts. Now, God could do all of this by Himself in an instant, but He loves to work in partnership with humanity to bring His kingdom. That happens through prayer and intercession.
The ultimate culmination of this will be Jesus coming back, which is the end goal of every prayer. That's what the Bible points us to, and that's where our hearts can find hope to keep praying.
