This week we’re praying for justice, using guidance from four Psalms and two of Jesus’s parables. So far we learned about praying for our leaders to do justice, lamenting injustice, petitioning for protection, and praising God when justice is done.
Today we’ll learn from Jesus how to pray with the right heart.
In Luke 18 Jesus teaches with two parables on prayer that teach a twin lesson on persistence and humility.
Parable A. Always Pray and Don’t Give Up
In Luke 18:1-8 Jesus tells a parable to teach his disciples how to pray with hope. The parable is about a widow who is being oppressed and asks an unrighteous judge to hear her case. Because of her persistence the judge promises to give her justice.
Jesus tells us that we should be as persistent as the widow, and our righteous God will hear us. Jesus ends his teaching with the warning that when he comes back, he wants to see that we are still faithful. As v1 says, “should always pray and not give up”.
Parable B. Avoid Self-Righteousness
In Luke 18:9-14 pairs his teaching about persistent prayer with a warning about self-righteous prayer. He tells another parable about two men who went to a temple to pray. One thanked God for not being like the sinners he sees around him. The other asked God for forgiveness for sinning.
Two of the types of sinners the first man prayed about oppressed others – “the robbers” and “tax collectors”. While the man who asked for forgiveness was perpetuating injustice himself – he was a tax collector for Rome, the colonial power.
As we pray through the Psalms asking for God’s justice, intervention, and protection we need to examine ourselves and ask for forgiveness in the ways we participate in oppression.
Tomorrow we’ll learn about Psalms that will help you pour out anger toward your enemies who oppose your efforts at justice.