A pleading widow; an unrighteous judge. Why did Jesus choose such a story to tell us about faith and about God’s love? There are some incredible lessons that we need to understand from this story.
Many of us do not understand what “faith” really is and how we need to implement it in our daily life; how it guides us to our destination and keeps us stable along the way. I want to start out with this very interesting parable that Jesus told as He was talking about faith and prayer as recorded in Luke chapter 18.
“And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:1–8
Could He not have chosen a better story to speak about faith? The unjust judge says, “I will avenge her because she bothers me.” What is God trying to tell us here? Why did Jesus choose this story to talk about faith? Notice what He says, “There was a judge which did not fear God, neither regarded man.” He is, in reality, trying to teach us a very important lesson by saying, “look at this, the judge is a wicked man, he has no spiritual inclination whatsoever, he is not just nor can he be trusted,” but after asking him repeatedly, he finally gave justice to the widow. Now God, who is love and cares for us, will hear our prayers and will always give justice for us when we ask Him. This is the main point of Jesus’ story. Jesus was saying, you cannot always trust the unjust judge to make the right decision but you can always trust God.
God is always willing to make a decision for you when you want Him to, although, sometimes we say, “Lord give me patience and give it to me now.” This, however, is not the way God works, because He knows the future and lives for us in the future. We are limited by the here-and-now and do not know what will happen, even in the next three seconds. God does know what is going to happen. He knows the future and we can read about it in the Bible. God knows how to arrange circumstances to answer our prayers. We need to understand how faith empowers us to wait for God until the answer comes, and that God answers our prayer in His way; thus we should not be weary but be confident in Christ.
We will now study 1 Peter chapter 1. In verse 3 it reads, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” The important words to pay attention to here are “living hope” or “lively hope”. It is now time that we get some life back into our lives. What we need is to have a look of happiness on our faces and joy in our hearts when we come to church so that people can see that we have been with Jesus during the week. We need to have a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We can have the confidence today to say that because Jesus arose we have eternal life, if we have a living, working faith in God.
Notice in 1 Peter 1:4, “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.” Did you know that today, as we live in this world,
God has prepared a place in heaven for you? That is, if we continue in the faith, as faith is the key. Now, look at verse 5. “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Verse 5 is an entire Bible study in itself. Continuing on to verse 6, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” God is saying that the knowledge we receive through the study of the Bible will help us to get through the trials we will face in this life. Are you facing some trials in your life? Are you feeling like you are battling alone in this life? Do not feel like that way, because Jesus is on your side.
If we are so focused on the here and now only, we can easily forget the blessings which come through Jesus and His word. If we are focused on this world only we can easily forget who we are and what inheritance we have.
Now, in 1 Peter 1:7 it reads, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” How many people actually look at trials as precious? If faith is going to take us through the trials to the second coming of Jesus, then how much more should we exercise it today? Verses 8 and 9 read, “Whom having not seen, ye love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” What is faith given for? It is given for salvation, in order to help us go through trials. Faith is to be exercised. Paul says in Romans 12:3, “God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”
In Matthew 17:20 Jesus said “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove.” The mustard seed was the smallest seed known in ancient Palestine. Jesus is telling us that even with the smallest amount of faith, His true followers should be able to do the seemingly impossible, like moving a mountain of problems that they may face in life.
What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 gives the clearest definition, but notice first what it says in Hebrews 10:37–38. “For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.” And Hebrews 11:1 follows by saying, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The two Greek words in this verse are very important. The Greek word for “substance” means “confidence” or “building block” or “foundation”. Faith is the foundation of our walk with God. Faith is what we build in our lives upon. Now the word “evidence” comes from the Greek word for “demonstration” and that is the same word that the Greek philosophers used in their mathematics. They use this word to prove something. And that is what God is trying to teach us in Hebrews 11. He is trying to prove to you what will happen if you have faith. Things we hoped for become reality through faith in Christ. What good news this is! In reading the entire chapter of Hebrews 11, God is telling us that if we have faith in Him, we will be rewarded as were those heroes of faith.
Paul says, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17. Faith is not passive—faith is active. “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7. We do not walk by hearing. Genuine faith is active in our lives; it helps us to walk as Jesus walked while He was on this earth.
Peter understood that when he wrote, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” 2 Peter 1:5–9
If you really want to start living then start exercising faith.
Paul said “I am crucified [daily] with Christ.” Galatians 2:20. Every day we need to pray, asking Jesus to give us this faith. “Fight the good fight of faith.” 1 Timothy 6:12. Paul said we need to fight, and this is an active verb. We need to ask the Lord to give us the desire to fight the good fight of faith.
Reading in Hebrews 11:4 we see what faith did for Abel. “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” We can read further on about Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. One who remained where he was by faith was Noah, and one moved to a place which God prepared, was Abraham.
Here is the key; faith is not about outcomes. Faith is about trusting God. The outcomes are in God’s hands. What God asks is that we trust Him, and no matter what happens we will still trust in Him. Job showed this kind of faith when he said, “though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” Job 13:15. That is also what the three Hebrews said when they were threatened with the fiery furnace. “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us.” Daniel 3:17. We have no doubt that God could deliver us from these flames, but if He chooses not to, we still trust Him.
What a firm faith is revealed here; and this is what God wants us to learn in this life. This is the attitude that will give us the victory, and we should exercise it daily. How many times do we put conditions on our faith by saying, “God, heal me and then I am going to believe in You more; God, give me this now, and I am going to believe in You more; God, deliver me so that I may trust in You more”? Have you been guilty of this? I believe we all have at one time or another. Here is the key—we may know what we want, but God knows what we need. Does it make a difference? Yes, it does; so what we read in Hebrews 11 is very encouraging for us.
Another good example the life if Sarah. “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” Hebrews 11:11. Was it possible for Sarah to have a baby at her age? Humanly speaking it was not possible, however, God made it possible. We look at the things as they are here-and-now, but God looks ahead. He looks down the road.
Is anything too hard for God? Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Luke 18:27. Do we believe this? Are we trusting in God fully? Or maybe we trust God but we still think the way we think. Or maybe we trust God up to a certain point and then we want to add something to what God is doing. This will not work.
Forget all your past failures and trust God, my friend. All of us have experienced failures in this life. But, praise be to God, He still calls us, “My son, My daughter, trust Me with all your heart, because the price is high—it is eternal life.” An eternity with God. What a wonderful thought!
Then as we read through Hebrews 11 we have the example of Samson in verse 32, “And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.” His faith helped him to cling to the promises of God. Samson made a mess of his life, but God is a God of love. And God said, if you exercise faith, we are saved by grace through faith. When Samson came back and said, “O God, I made a mess out of my life, please just give me one more chance,” God said, “Yes, I will give it to you.” He could have said, “I will give you one more chance but, if you lose it, that was your last chance—no more.” But friends, if we have faith as a mustard seed we can move mountains. If we have this same attitude that Samson had and come to Jesus saying, “Jesus, please give me one more chance,” He will grant it to you. He is Jesus, the compassionate Saviour and Redeemer. When we compare ourselves with His wonderful character we see how far away we really are and we cry out for help. So, do not lose your faith, putting conditions on it; just look at Jesus on the cross, hanging there for your sin. I am so glad that the record of Samson’s life is available to us.
Victory, victory and victory. We read of it in the next verses Hebrew 11:33-34, “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” And verse 36, “And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment.”
And now, here is the conclusion. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1–2
Dear friends, faith is a gift from God. We do not naturally possess it, but we can ask God for it. The Bible says that Jesus begins to work in our hearts and the good news is that He will continue if we allow Him. Are you willing today to say to the Lord that you want to put Him to the test? Will you say, “I am going to accept Your word just as it is, in order to transform my life?” Do you want to fully consecrate your heart and life to Christ today? Let us pray, “Lord, You have been so kind to me, You have been so good to me, ever since I first met You. I give my life to You right now.”
May God richly bless you as you give your life to Christ, is my wish and prayer. Amen.
Nicholas Anca