There was a judge in a certain town
who neither feared God nor respected any human being.
God is not like this judge. We have a Father who knows what we need before we ask (see Matthew 6:8). He delights to give good things to his children (see Matthew 7:11). Yet there is one thing that makes the comparison worth making.
Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night?
Jesus tells us that if we ask we will receive. But what he specifically says, grammatically is that if we ask and keep asking we will receive. James reminds us that these petitions can't come from unstable and doubting flesh but must issue forth from our faith. We all have moments of faith. What God seems to be doing in calling us to persevere is to try to make the moments more the rule than the exception.
God knows that it is difficult for us when he doesn't meet all of our desires immediately. Therefore he willingly lets himself be compared, humorously, to an unjust judge so that even our waiting can go from being tedious to being playful. Unlike the widow, we aren't always asking for justice. We aren't always acting in faith. But if we keep coming back to God again and again with our prayers we will get it right more consistently. Then he won't be slow to answer us.
Please help them in a way worthy of God to continue their journey.
For they have set out for the sake of the Name
and are accepting nothing from the pagans.
As we try to live this life for the sake of the name we need help. We need co-workers in the truth. We need people who will remind us to keep going back to God when we are ready to give up on him. We need people who remind us to continue being faithful in our care of strangers even when it seems to have no effect. They remind us to keep loving when our love is at risk of growing cold. If we keep such people around us, if we ourselves are such people, the Son of Man will find faith when he comes to us.
Light shines through the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious and merciful and just.
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