by David Gibson<\/p>\n
In a not-so-familiar passage, God urges Israel, “You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest<\/em> …” (Isaiah 62:6-7 NASB). In other words, keep petitioning God in your prayers for the good of His people. He will hear and respond!<\/p>\n Jesus strongly emphasizes the tremendous power of persistent prayer.<\/p>\n “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart<\/em>” (Luke 18:1). A widow asked the judge to give her justice against an oppressor. He admitted the only reason he granted her request was that “this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming<\/em>.”<\/p>\n Jesus’ point is that if a heartless judge finally granted justice because of the widow’s persistence, how much more will our righteous God “give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night<\/em>” (Luke 18:1-7; see Luke 11:5-13)?<\/p>\n When Jesus was traveling through Gentile territory, a Canaanite woman begged Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter. At first, He gave her the silent treatment. Then He spoke, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel<\/em>.” She kept begging.\u00a0Then, He gave her the ultimate test: “‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ <\/em>Then Jesus answered her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly<\/em>” (Matthew 15:21-28).<\/p>\n Jesus contrasts persistence in prayer with losing heart (Luke 18:1). The persistent widow refused to stop pestering the judge.<\/p>\n The persistent mother let nothing discourage her. She kept begging. And why? She had great faith. She truly, truly believed Jesus could help her. She was right, and she was rewarded.<\/p>\n And so will we.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by David Gibson In a not-so-familiar passage, God urges Israel, “You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest …” (Isaiah 62:6-7 NASB). In other words, keep petitioning God in your prayers for the good of His people. He will hear and respond! Persistence pays! Jesus strongly emphasizes the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[917,1510],"class_list":["post-84063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-persistence","tag-prayers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28449,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-bad-to-keep-on-praying-the-same-prayer-all-over-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":84063,"position":0},"title":"Is it bad to keep on praying the same prayer all over again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This is a question about prayer. Is it bad to keep on praying the same prayer all over again? It could be from desperation, or it can be another reason. For example, you have a problem or worry you share with the Lord and you think that you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":98364,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-the-son-find-faith-on-the-earth\/","url_meta":{"origin":84063,"position":1},"title":"Will the Son Find Faith on the Earth?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier We've already learned about the impudent friend who knocked on his friend's door late at night and received help (see Luke 11:5-13). Now Jesus tells us about a widow who persistently pled for justice from an unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). Even though he didn't actually care about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89516,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faithfulness-in-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":84063,"position":2},"title":"Faithfulness in Prayer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Heath Rogers In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus told a parable to His disciples about a woman pleading with an unjust judge. This parable was spoken for a specific purpose: \"that men always ought to pray and not lose heart\" (Luke 18:1). Prayer is an exercise of faith. When we pray,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":98273,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/pray-with-impudence\/","url_meta":{"origin":84063,"position":3},"title":"Pray with Impudence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier Other translations say, \"persistence,\" but the ESV says, \"impudence.\" In Luke 11:8, when Jesus explained why the friend who was in bed would eventually respond to the requests for bread, Jesus said, \"I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9036,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-jesus-ignore-the-canaanite-woman\/","url_meta":{"origin":84063,"position":4},"title":"Why did Jesus ignore the Canaanite woman?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In reference to Matthew 15:22-28, this passage talks about a woman who approaches Jesus asking for help for her daughter. It appears from what she says that she was quite aware of who He was by referring to Him as the Son of David. My question - Why did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84069,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/steadfast-persistence\/","url_meta":{"origin":84063,"position":5},"title":"Steadfast Persistence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Luke 11 includes an event in which Jesus' disciples ask Him to teach them to pray. He instructs them in what we commonly call the Lord's prayer (although technically, it's the disciples' prayer since Jesus taught it to them) and follows it up with the famous saying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Persistence pays!<\/h2>\n
Observations<\/h2>\n