When Prayer Feels Delayed: Why You Can Pray Without Losing Heart

Jan 19

If you’ve ever wondered whether God is listening, or why it feels like He’s slow to respond, Jesus tells one story that flips the entire question on its head.

The Parable of the Persistent Widow
1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Always Pray and Don’t Lose Heart: Understanding God’s Nature in Prayer

“The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.” F.B. Meyer

Intimacy with the Father fuels results in prayer, but what matters most is drawing near to God as Father. Oswald Chambers captured this when he said, “Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means for getting something for ourselves, but the Bible’s idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.”

Prayer and your heart connected with God are deeply interrelated. This is why the Bible teaches us to guard our hearts, because they are the wellspring of life. Do we pray in order to guard our hearts, or do we guard our hearts in order to pray? The answer is yes.

Samuel Chadwick warned, “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from our prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”

[READ MORE: How to Find God in a Wandering Mind]

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

Jesus told a parable in Luke 18:1-8 to teach us about God’s nature and His willingness to respond when His children cry out to Him. It is a story of a poor widow who appealed to a judge for help.

In Jesus’ day, widows had an extremely difficult time making ends meet. The widow in this parable went before a judge in a courtroom, which wasn’t a nice building as we see in American county seats, but a tent that moved from place to place as the judge covered his circuit. The judge, not the law, set the agenda as he sat regally in his tent surrounded by assistants.

Anyone could watch the court proceedings, but only those whose cases had been approved for a hearing would get one. That usually meant bribing one of the assistants to get bumped up in the order. The fact that this woman was a widow is significant because she faced multiple obstacles:

A woman in that day, she had little or no standing before the law. In Middle Eastern culture, women did not go to court.
As a widow, she had no husband to stand with her.
She was poor and could not afford to pay a bribe, even if she wanted to.

When Jesus began teaching on prayer with this story, everyone already understood that the odds were stacked against her.

JESUS: “In a certain city, there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming’.” Luke 18:2-5

The judge decided to give her justice simply because she would not stop bothering him. She was a source of irritation. Jesus wanted us to see this: If a selfish judge will finally meet the needs of a poor widow woman because she irritates him, how much more will a loving Father respond? If an unjust judge would give justice, imagine how God, a just judge, will give justice.

God Is Nothing Like This Judge

JESUS: “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Luke 18:6-8

There is a contrast here. We might charge human beings with indifference to needs, but we cannot charge God with indifference. When truth is wed to prayer, it often rises to the top over time. We see this in movements like the civil rights movement, where Martin Luther King Jr. quoted the Constitution’s declaration that all people are created equal—a principle rooted in biblical reality. Before God, all people are equal. At the foot of the cross, the ground is level. As one theologian said, “Racial reconciliation is not merely a social issue, it’s a blood of Jesus issue.”

So, what is the ultimate point of this parable? God is nothing like this judge.

This woman had no advocate, no one to speak on her behalf. But the Bible proclaims that you have an advocate in Jesus Christ who stands at the right hand of the Father pleading your case (1 John 2:1). This woman had no promise to bring before the judge. But God’s Word is full of promises for you. This woman was an outsider. But the Bible tells us that in Christ, you are not an outsider; instead, you are a child of God (1 John 3:1).

This is why Jesus told this parable in Luke 18:1: “that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

What Does “Always Pray” Mean?

What does Jesus mean by “ought always to pray”?

There is a difference between praying crisis-oriented prayers and Christ-oriented prayers. When we are in a crisis, should we pray? Absolutely. But Jesus invites us into something much more beautiful, rich, and abundant. He invites us to be men and women who pray because we are Christ-oriented and Christ-centered. In this invitation, our praying becomes as natural as breathing. Just as we breathe, rhythms of prayer would salt and pepper our day. It would be as rhythmic as breathing itself.

Living in a Different Atmosphere

Right before Jesus taught this parable, He said something strange: “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” (Luke 17:37). Then He jumped into this parable about prayer. Before the Bible was canonized with chapters and verses, all of this flowed with clear connectivity. Here is what we can miss: Vultures gather around things that are dying and rotting.

If we pay attention, we recognize there are things in our culture that are dying and rotting.

Every time we hear a siren, we’re reminded that we live in a fallen world where things are dying.
Every time we walk out our front door and lock it, it is a symptom that we live in a fallen world.
When we lock our car doors before walking into church, we don’t even think about it because it’s become so natural, but it’s all a result of a fallen world.
There is conflict between people, conflict between nations, cancer diagnoses, and other ailments. Things are diminishing.

Jesus used this picture of vultures gathering to depict the dark, rotting atmosphere of this fallen world. But then He invites us to move into a different atmosphere—an atmosphere of a prayerful life.

When we tap into the King and the kingdom of God, it moves us into the ability to live in a different atmosphere: an atmosphere where there is peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7), an atmosphere where we have the capacity to know the love of God and give the love of God at such a deep level that we rise above many of the conflicts around us. There is an atmosphere we can live in that defies earthly reality. [READ MORE: How Does Scripture Transform Prayer from Routine to Power?]

When we live in this atmosphere of prayer, we are drawing forth the pure air of heaven. It is a different atmosphere. This is why David Platt says, “Our goal in prayer is not ultimately to get things from God. Our goal in prayer is ultimately to know, love, and enjoy God.”

The Call to Constant Prayer

When you read in the Bible about praying constantly, it’s not so that you become more religious. It’s so that you enjoy communion with God and know richness in that communion. Consider what Scripture teaches:

“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)—just like breathing, stay in communion with God.
“Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying” (Ephesians 6:18).
“Watch yourselves therefore and pray always” (Luke 21:36).
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12).
“Continue in prayer” (Colossians 4:2).

This is why C.S. Lewis said, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than being alive without breathing.”

Lewis wasn’t talking about checking a box on a hospital form that says “I am Christian.” He was describing the riches of what it means to know Christ, follow Christ, and commune with Christ. This is what the Apostle Paul knew when he would break out in prayer throughout his letters. Paul, who had been caught up to the third heaven and had seen spiritual and eternal realities (2 Corinthians 12:2), knew the power of prayer and what was available to us as believers.

We see Jesus maintaining a lifestyle of prayer—praying in the garden, on the mountaintop, in the wilderness, in the lonely place, praying all night long. What Jesus knew, we all need to know. As Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work.”

Enjoying God

Years ago, a young woman at our church made an appointment to see me. She had come to Christ and was really growing in her faith. She said something that came across as awkward at first: “Paul, I’m enjoying God.”

I thought, “You made an appointment to tell me that you’re enjoying God?” But I began to rejoice with her because she explained, “Paul, there was a time when I thought prayer was just making my list and saying a few things. But what’s happening is I’m enjoying drawing near to the Father and communing with Him. I’m finding greater peace, greater presence, greater joy. Life’s not perfect, but I just enjoy being with God.”

A.B. Simpson once said, “Our God has boundless resources. The only limit is us. Our asking, our thinking, and our praying are too small. Our expectations are too limited.”

Don’t Lose Heart

Jesus tells us this parable so that we not only ought to pray always, but also that, as we pray, we should not lose heart (Luke 18:1). Losing heart is a symptom of prayerlessness in our lives. Jesus is not inviting you to be religious. Jesus is inviting you to draw near. As we said last week, what Jesus emphasizes in the New Testament is this: Come closer.

The phrase “losing heart,” or in some translations, “fainting,” describes a believer who gets so discouraged in prayer that they quit. If we do not pray, we will faint. Simple as that. You are designed to commune with God.

When Jesus says “pray and don’t lose heart,” He means two things: First, you can lose heart because you get discouraged. Guard yourself against that. Second, you can lose heart because you think your prayers are not being answered fast enough.

It is important to recognize that God moves in God’s time. God is not only working in your life or in your circumstance; He is also working in the lives of other people. God has a perfect time. Remember, we have been learning that whatever we pray according to His will, He hears us (1 John 5:14). When you pray Scripture over a circumstance, and it is properly interpreted, God is hearing your prayer. In His sovereignty, He is at work.

We do not relinquish everything to God passively, saying, “Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen because You’re sovereign.” No, we pray because He is sovereign, because He is all-powerful, and we pray for Him to work in our circumstances. But be mindful that, as we pray, He is also working in the lives of many others. When He is weaving a mosaic together in His sovereignty, you play a part in that, your circumstance plays a part in that, but so do the lives of many others.

Do not give up on God. Do not give up on prayer. Do not faint.

The Church’s Great Need

“What the church needs today is not more machinery or better or newer organizations or more novel methods, but people whom the Holy Spirit can use. People of prayer, people mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods; it flows through people. He does not come on machinery, but on people. He does not anoint plans, but people—people of prayer.” E.M. Bounds

John Wesley believed adamantly in and lived a life of prayer. He said, “God does nothing except in answer to prayer.” If we are to accomplish anything of eternal value, we need to do it out of prayer. Wesley called prayer “the grand means of drawing near to God.” When we pray, we have supernatural enabling.

Doug Small once said, “Without supernatural enabling, we are merely a social institution doing the work of encouragement—worthy work, but less than the call incumbent upon the church, upon God’s people.”

God Is Available Right Where You Are

For many people in our hearts, we say, “I want God,” but we run in different directions looking for Him. I want to remind you that based upon Jesus’ words right here, He is available right where you are, right here, right now.

Today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). That word “salvation” not only means you are delivered from hell and death and birthed into eternity, but its root connection to the Greek word teleos means to come into a place where you begin experiencing human flourishing. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

Your first step is not to run or chase. Your first step is surrender. Surrender to Jesus. Surrender and declare in your mind and heart that you believe what He said: that He loves you so much He gave His one and only Son, and whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Believe Him when He says, “I did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world” (John 3:17). Believe Him when His Word declares that when you are in Christ, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). Believe Him when the Word declares that when your life is in Christ, old things pass away and new things come (2 Corinthians 5:17). Believe Him that as far as the east is from the west, that is how far He removes your sin from you (Psalm 103:12).

This is too good to be true and too true to ignore.

The first step is always surrender. Out of that root system of what God has done at the cross, you are birthed into intimacy with Jesus, intimacy with the Father. The reality that your sins at the cross have been taken away means you can now grow, now flourish, now begin to bloom, now begin to enjoy God. Romans declares that before you took that step of surrender in the gospel, you were at enmity with God (Romans 5:10). But God in Christ has healed that enmity when you surrender your heart and life to Him. You step into a brand new life that flourishes and enjoys God for His glory. [READ MORE: When God Stirs Your Soul: Meeting God in the Quiet Hours]

Kindle the Fire

I want to leave you with an image and invite you to let it become personal: a fire that has been built but is not yet lit. There are embers under the wood.

Ask Jesus this question: “Jesus, would You blow a holy wind of Your Holy Spirit on the embers of my heart?”

As the old hymn says, “Breathe on me, breath of God.” Pray that the breath of the living God would cause the embers of your heart to ignite the dry wood. Pray that He would kindle His fire within you—the fire of first love for Jesus Christ. Pray that He would kindle this fire in such a way that it becomes a blaze, and that we individually and corporately would be that city set on a hill (Matthew 5:14).

Always pray. Do not lose heart. Draw near to the Father who is waiting to respond to His children who cry out to Him day and night.

This blog post is adapted from a sermon preached by Paul Lawler, Senior Pastor at Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

TL;DR

Jesus uses the unjust judge to make a “how much more” point: God is nothing like the judge—He’s good, attentive, and just.
Persistent prayer isn’t about wearing God down; it’s about not losing heart in a world that can slowly pollute your spirit.
“Pray always” means living in ongoing communion with the Father—prayer as natural as breathing, not only crisis prayers.
The closing question is the real challenge: when Christ returns, will He find faith—the kind that keeps praying even when answers take time?