Title: The Widow's Prayer
Contents
Sunday Sermon_090607
Title: The Relentless Widow's Prayer
Text: Luke 18:1-8 (New Testament p. 126)
<Introduction>
It is a scene in which Jesus tells through parables how to pray. In this parable, Jesus has two strong men appearing. Both were tough people. Both are strong characters who have gone through everything before and have survived in a society like the jungle. In a word, it is a battle of spear and shield.
One was an unjust judge. He was a judge known for not fearing God and ignoring people. People I knew were the judges who shook their heads. He was a careless judge without blood or tears. The powerful adversary he met at the single wooden bridge was none other than a widow. As the Bible puts it, she is a widow who specializes in bullying. A widow is more terrifying than an aunt.
These days, in a newspaper article about the greatness of a woman who is a little weaker than a widow, these words have been posted and are drawing people's attention. “The power of ‘Ajumma of Korea’, who makes the impossible possible, has stood in the way of the machine man who will threaten mankind.”
This is an expression that the movie 'Mother', which is about the power of a woman, is blocking the popularity of the movie 'Terminator 4', which has a robot as the main character. In this movie, Mother, the audience is enthusiastically responding to the struggle of the son (Won Bin), who is driven to be a murderer, and the young mother (Kim Hye-ja), who goes to find the criminal directly with the sole determination to save the son in search of the truth that the police and lawyers have turned away from. .
Those who see the evaluation of this movie for the first time will think that the power of Korean women is so great that even the Terminator can't use their power. And there are probably not many people who find it strange to evaluate such a woman.
Especially if you are a Korean, you will feel that Ajumma's tenacity is really amazing. Even an aunt who is one step younger than the widow can even face the Terminator, but how stubborn is the widow Jesus introduced today? Jesus is saying that there is no problem in receiving answers to prayers as long as this widow is enough.
Most people come to the conclusion that if answers do not come easily after praying, it is because of their weak faith. However, according to Jesus' evaluation, the key to answering prayers is not how much he believes in the state of his heart, but how devoted he is to what he believes.
The answer to prayer is a matter of concentration and concentration. It is said that the key to answering prayers is how often you tell God to make it difficult and troublesome to God. The key word is 'frequently'. Harassment. These are the words of Jesus Himself. In the name of the Lord, I pray in the name of the Lord that the work of going to God often and receiving answers to prayers will be with me and you today. Amen.
<Body>
The key to answering prayers is persistence. Being a woman with children and a husband is the shortcut to answering prayers. It is the standard of answering prayers that God visits us so often that it is troublesome. It is to imitate the plight of a grudged widow. All you have to do is put your prayers on the place of the grudge widow.
The answer depends on the attitude of the person praying. This persistence takes precedence over faith. We need Korean Ajumma's guts. Because we all need answers to our prayers. In fact, our life and death matters depend on the answers to our prayers.
We are all in trouble. So we must all receive answers to our prayers. And by solving that problem, we are to find the way God wants us to live. Having a problem ahead of us also means that there is a way that we must find right away.
As soon as I solve the problem right away, I am where I need to be, and I am on my way. This is the meaning of the problem set before us. The meaning of the problem in my life is this. getting on the right path. being where you should be. It's about living the life you're supposed to live.
Problems in my life mean that I have strayed from the path of living according to God's will, or that it's time to take a different path. In any case, it is certain that the time of change has come, when we must have the courage to move from our current path to the path that the Lord is leading us. The time of decision has come.
Frustration came to this widow. If we keep going like this, we are faced with a cramped crisis in our lives that we cannot live with. Jesus described this as the widow's grudge. A grudge is a word that overlaps with the desired state. It means that you have what you want enough to become Han. This is the grudge.
And this resentment is for a widow who has no power and no one to take care of her. He is a person who is in a situation where he cannot solve his grievance without resolving it through law. Moreover, the only person who could solve his problem was a judge who was more cramped than he was. He was an indifferent person, almost at the level of a mangbu-seok. It was up to him to solve his own problems.
But even at this worst level, they say that the problem can be solved. This judge was a back-and-forth judge who did not fear God and ignored people. Still, the widow was able to break through this wall. It was a frequent visit. The troublesome and annoying tactic was solved.
However, this illustration and advantage is that the judge of heaven, who will solve our problems, is an easier opponent than this. We all have the advantage of praying to a loving God, a God who does not ignore the prayers of his children. All I need to do is change my prayer attitude continuously.
This illustration is an extreme illustration of the worst case scenario. Two extreme worst-case variables were noted. The first, possibly the worst, is the unjust judge who spoke first. The second worst-case variable is rejection. The first is that there may be some rejections.
According to this illustration, verse 4 includes the possibility that prayers may be rejected for a period of time. But in the end, he concludes the sermon with the conclusion that the prayer of a widow who does not give up has no choice but to be heard. The bottom line is that it is answered. The bottom line is that the problems I am facing are 100% solvable.
The only problem variable is me with the problem. It's my attitude. Don't be discouraged if you don't get a response the first few minutes. The problem I am having is that it is beyond my power, but the amount or attitude of prayer I have to pray was not outside my power.
Then, why did Jesus use the widow as an example of a person who received answers to prayers? Let's take a look at that biblical background. In the Bible, the Apostle Paul summarized those who are recognized as true widows as those who have the following characteristics. (1 Tim. 5:9-10)
1. A person without a family. 2. A person who puts his hope only in God. 3. A person who prays day and night. 4. A person who shuns worldly pleasures. 5. A person who is 60 years of age or older, married to one husband and never remarried. 6. A person with evidence of a good life: A person who raises children, treats strangers, washes the feet of saints, gives relief to those in affliction, and follows all good works. This is the standard set by Paul.
A true widow is a person who only puts her hope in God. Besides, he is basically a person who prays day and night. And there must be good evidence of life. We may think that a widow has a small nose, and what kind of alms do she give to others and hospitality to strangers, but the Bible says she can.
Such a person becomes a person who receives prayer answers well. We need the attitude of a true widow. Our problems are already beyond our power. But the one who solves that problem is Almighty God who can do anything. The problem is not the size of my problem, but the size of my prayer.
The degree of my faith is not the key to the solution, but the frequency of my prayers is the key to solving the problem. Persistence is the key. It means to constantly seek God. In the beginning, it seems as if there is a period when God does not listen, but if you pray often enough to trouble God, your prayer will eventually be answered. It is God's promise. This is a promise that Jesus Himself guaranteed.
There is no problem in the world that cannot be solved by hanging like this. Because God has clearly promised. ‘Will I see faith?’ It means to see persistence. Don't get discouraged, and pray all the time. If you just do it like a grudged widow, you will receive answers in a short time.
And the amount of waiting is also different. The first year of elementary school is completed in only 4 periods. We do not ask the first graders of elementary school to wait until the 7th and 8th periods. That waiting does not go beyond that person's vessel of faith. For beginners in the life of faith, He makes them wait only as long as they can endure. And then your faith grows. This is how God responds.
<Conclusion>
Dear saints, Now we are going to draw the conclusion of the sermon. Prayer is like a tug of war. It is a tug of war that God always loses. If I do not let go of the rope and play the tug-of-war only as much as God has determined, it is a tug-of-war where the saints will surely win.
This tug of war is not one-sided. The thickness of the line and the measuring time vary according to each person's level of faith. If you ask elementary school students to play a 10-minute tug of war, they get tired and give up. Elementary school students end the tug-of-war in 1 or 2 minutes. For middle and high school students or young adults, 3-5 minutes may be possible.
And the tug-of-war of this prayer is not tailored to be won only by mature adults. Even a small child can win by holding on to the line without giving up. Because the opponent is God, trying to win by force is a wrong approach from the beginning. God only confirms persistence. And when God's timer sounds an alarm, now he is answering your prayers.
So, Jesus tells the parable of the widow's prayer not to give up on prayer. If you do not lose heart and pray always, there is hope. However, if you give up from the beginning because you are pressed by circumstances and problems, the answer will not come out. It just makes the problem worse. But when you start clinging to God, the problem is over. Because God is a God who answers.
I would like to end the talk with the sardine story. It is said that there is a way to catch sardines from afar and keep them alive for a long distance, most of the sardines do not die. It is said that catfish, the natural enemy of sardines, are released together with a few sardines. It is said that the catfish eats a few at first, but cannot eat any more because they are full and continue to roam threatening the sardines. The sardines then run away from the catfish and eventually reach land alive. Catfish are a threat to the sardines, but not to kill them, but to keep them alive to the end. That is the problem we are facing. It's not the catfish that kills me, it's the catfish that keeps me awake. It is what makes me alive until I come before the Lord.
The problem is that I don't die under the weight of problems and worries, but I go to God with my problems and get the problems solved, and at the same time my faith lives on.
A crisis is an opportunity for some. This means that crises are not opportunities for everyone, but only those who deal with them appropriately. A crisis is just a crisis for those who sit still and live in a crisis. As time goes by, you will get caught in that crisis and eat it.
But those who depend on God. Anyone who goes to Almighty God and asks for a solution will solve the problem and their faith will grow. You will live a life of faith. This is because an awake life of faith is what God really wants.
God is telling us not to leave the matter unattended, but to bring it out. I earnestly pray in the name of the Lord that the blessing of being resolved through faith may come to all of us. Amen.