- And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Luke 18:1 – A theme in this chapter is this persistency the Lord is calling us to have with our prayer life. Here we are taught to always pray and never lose heart. We have the parable of the widow, who while not getting her way immediately with this bad judge, kept coming repeatedly to him until she wore him down. We also have the story of the blind beggar, who when he discovered it was Jesus passing by him, wouldn’t be quieted down by anyone but continued in his plea for mercy. I believe the Lord is seeking to teach His people something powerful about prayer with this chapter…to keep praying. God is inviting a persistent nature to our prayer life. He wants us to keep knocking at the door until something happens. Do we have this persistent posture to our prayer life so we can wear down the Lord and always get what we want? No, I don’t believe that’s the heart behind this command to always pray. I believe when we have a prayer life that is consistent and persistent it more rapidly shapes our desires to be more for what the Lord desires. When we are constantly looking to Him and talking to Him and even reciting back His promises to us in scripture, this is going to have an effect on our mind and desires. Meaning persistent prayer pushes us to want His will, not ours. So yes, God is inviting the type of persistent prayer we see in this chapter. Not as a lesson for us to always get what our flesh wants, but a lesson to show us how to grow a heart for what the Lord has a heart for. And when we pray for the things that the Lord has a heart for and are according to His will, we hold the promise that He hears and He provides. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3547
- And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. Luke 18:43 – When you begin to think God isn’t blessing you, remember the things we often take for granted are the very things others are praying for. Like with sight here in our story. All the blind man wanted was to see and he received that and began following Jesus. What we also read from this verse is many others saw this done. Meaning they very thing the blind man was crying out for, sight, was something these other people just had and took for granted. Gaining sight was the blind man’s turning point to follow Jesus, but how many of us who have the blessing of sight already still don’t see Jesus like this blind man? Today, remember what Jesus has already blessed you with. Maybe He’s said no or wait when it comes to somethings you’ve been praying for, but that doesn’t mean He’s forgotten you. The current blessings in your life are proof of that. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 623
- And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” 42 And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” Luke 18:40-42 – Awhile back I read this story and I noticed something I hadn’t seen in prior read throughs. A blind man is asking Jesus for healing and Jesus commanded that the blind man be brought to Him. After some conversation with the blind man, Jesus heals him and he is no longer blind. What’s beautiful is the healing, but what’s also beautiful is the faith of the blind man. Not only did he have faith in Jesus without seeing anything He had done, he was willing to follow the commands of Jesus before he was healed. Note that when he listened to the command of Jesus to come, the blind man was still blind at this time. Meaning he listened, obeyed, and followed Jesus before Jesus had worked healing into his story. I pray this is our story too. That we are willing to listen, obey, and follow Jesus even when we haven’t received yet from Him what we are asking to receive. That our following of Jesus isn’t based off of whether we’ve gotten our prayers answered recently or if God has moved how we asked Him to. That we are choosing to listen, obey, and follow in the times of blessing and even the times of drought. Trust that our God is good, even if you can’t see the blessing yet. The man in our story sure didn’t see the blessing, but after following Jesus he sure did. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2335
