Saturday
2 Tim. 2:11-19, Luke
18: 2-8
A passage from St.
Theophan the Recluse
“To more strongly impress the truth that men ought always to
pray, and not to faint (Luke 18:1) and that they should continue to pray if
their prayer is not soon heard, the Lord told the parable about the judge who
neither feared God nor regarded man. The judge complied at last with the
widow’s petition, not
because he feared God and regarded man, but only because that widow gave him no
peace. So, if such a callous man could not withstand the persistence of
this woman’s petition, will not God, Who loves mankind and is filled with
mercy, fulfill a petition raised up to Him persistently with tears and
contrition? Here is the answer to why our prayers are often not heard: Because
we do not send up our petitions to God zealously, but as though in passing;
furthermore, we pray once today, then expect our prayer to be answered by
tomorrow, not thinking to sweat and trouble ourselves any more in prayer. That
is why our prayer is neither heard nor answered. We ourselves do not fulfill as
we ought the law laid down for prayer-the law of hopeful and zealous persistence.”
In this reading, St. Theophan uses the Parable of the Widow
and the Judge to talk about how important it is that we have persistence in our
prayers. Sometimes we may think, “I should stop praying because God hasn’t
answered that prayer yet, so it’s not worth it.” God has His own timing and it
will always be different than ours. And that is perfectly okay. God listens to
us and hears everything we tell Him. Prayer is our daily conversation with God
and it is also the time when we call out to Him in times of need. Persistence
in prayer is essential when building an intimate relationship with God. Prayer
gives us the strength to endure this life knowing that God is by our side, and
as a result, we feel closer to Him. “If we have died with him, we shall also
live with Him” (2 Timothy 2:11). God lives with us every single day, so we live
with Him by being aware of His presence and praying and communicating with Him.
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