Thanks for joining me on episode 1586 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. I'm Bruce Scott. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find your path to financial freedom is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Mader.

Thank you. Sometimes we need to step back and recharge our batteries, but we also have to keep going back at it and moving forward because that is what we're called to do. Persistent and persist in faith. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling.

In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so so that you can impact the world. In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Luke 18:1 8. I talk about how there are many parables that challenge us because we think we should explain God. And I also talk about how it's not enough to pray. You actually have to put your prayers into action.

Luke 18:1 8 says, Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, grant me justice against my accuser. For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.

And the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? So this joins my list of parables that I struggle with and in some ways wish Jesus had never told or they weren't in the Bible.

Because this parable is one that I wrestle with in some ways. There's a parable of the unjust judge and the persistent widow here, this person coming to a judge and asking for something, and the judge just giving up and saying, okay, fine, just to make you go away can we break this down and make it simple in some way? In some ways that may be what Luke is suggesting, at least by the beginning, by the introduction of this parable where it says, Jesus told this about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.

Luke seems to imply that's the message that we're supposed to take from this parable. Hang in there, just keep at it, keep chipping away, and eventually you'll get an answer. And if you think about that, though, what does that then say about the God we worship? Because at the end, Jesus asks, will God delay long in answering them? Now, I don't know about you, but I would admit that sometimes, yeah, God seems to delay.

Sometimes for a painful amount of time, God seems to delay. Sometimes the answer is one that we wait even forever for. There's many times that I have worn out my knees and shed many tears asking for something of God, and it's not come the answer. Not only just the answer that I want, but any answer doesn't seem to come. So this idea of just keep at it, just keep doing it in some ways seems to be more of a burden than a blessing.

A slap in the face rather than a pat on the back. So is Jesus wrong? Is that what Jesus is somehow incorrect about? The speediness of God's response? Has Jesus somehow screwed it up? Maybe there's something different about time. What seems slow to me isn't what seems slow to God. Your ways are not my ways. A thousand years in your sight or like yesterday to me, that kind of idea.

And that would excuse the quick response problem, right? Maybe God just doesn't look at time the same way as us. And yes, there's probably some truth to that. But I don't know about you. I don't feel like I need to excuse God or even really explain God in some way. God doesn't need explanation, but oftentimes we feel the need to understand what is going on and what is expected of us.

What is it that we're supposed to be doing? I think it's why we're so enamored by rules. Sometimes if we could just get all the rules down, then everything would work out, it'd be perfect. We'd all follow the rules and everything would work. Of course, it never works that way. So let's look at this and recognize Luke tells us it's about our need to pray always and not to lose heart.

So what is it about prayer that we can learn? What is the proper position of prayer? What words should we utter where should we utter them? How should we utter them? What direction should we utter them in? And there's not really much direction in this other than keep at it and eventually we'll break through and God will grudgingly grant us the justice. But then Jesus turns around and says, that's not how God functions.

Maybe this is a parable of contrast and not similarity. Maybe he's not saying that God is an unjust judge who has to be badgered into answering prayers. Rather, God is a God of justice who lays out, clearly weighs it towards the most vulnerable, those who maybe don't even seem to deserve it, and it demands the most from those in power. It's there. That's the justice of God. It is always there and always within reach.

So maybe we've got the parable backwards. Maybe God isn't represented by the judge, but by the woman, by the widow who begs and pleads and makes a noisy nuisance of herself. Maybe that's not us in the prayer situation. Maybe that's God. Maybe the unjust one, the one who has no fear of God and no respect for anyone. Maybe that is us. What if justice has been declared but because of selfishness and greed and prejudice and fear and anger and hate?

It isn't given to those who need it and is only offered to those who are already in power, already able to get it. But if this parable is about prayer, then why does the end say, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? It is a parable about how to pray. It is a parable about how we live our lives as disciples. But it's also a prayer that Jesus is saying we have to actually put into action.

Praying is doing, and doing is praying. This woman was praying as she stood vigil at the judge's door. She was praying as she pled for justice. She was praying while she made a nuisance of herself until this person finally gave in. This judge finally gave in. It's about moving our feet. It's about knocking on doors. It's about pushing through. Don't give up when it doesn't happen right away.

Because it's not going to happen right away. Not because God isn't responding, but because we aren't. We're called to keep doing it because that rather than complacency, that is what tears down the system. That is has inequity and is unjust. That's what lifts us up and creates the kingdom of God here on earth. It ain't easy, and God doesn't say it's easy. And yes, we need quiet time with God.

We need to be able to spend time within our hearts and our minds and lament. And sometimes we need to step back and recharge our batteries. But we also have to keep going back at it and moving forward because that is what we're called to do. Persistent and persist in faith. Thanks for listening thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling.

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