Continual Prayer – An Evidence of Our Faith
James tells us that faith or belief without works is dead (James 2:20). Without a lengthy debate concerning faith versus works, James simply states that genuine faith is observable through our actions. Spiritual works are evidence of living faith. As our bodies are as good as dead without God’s Spirit, so is faith without visual evidence.
Christ asks whether He would really find faith on the earth at His return (Luke 18:8). When we reflect on Christ’s question considering James’ statement, we must realize that Christ was wondering if visual evidence or works of faith would exist leading up to His return. In context of Luke 18:1-8, the observable evidence He is specifically referring to is prayer:
“Then [Christ] spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). “Lose Heart” in Greek means “to be utterly spiritless, to be wearied out, to be exhausted”. The King James Version translates it as “faint”. The word describes someone who loses heart and becomes so discouraged that they want to quit. They literally die on the vine.
In the context before Luke 18:1, Christ is describing in Luke 17: 22-37 what it will be like before His return. It begins with, “. . . The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it” (Luke 17:22 NKJV). And it ends with, “. . . Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather” ( Luke 17.37 NIV). Christ pictures this world as a “rotting corpse” with no life.
Continual prayer is evidence of our faith that God is our only salvation in this “rotting” world. It is also our lifeline, so we do not grow faint, spiritless, weary, and exhausted. Prayer should be the natural habit in our lives that expresses our constant faithful desire for His presence in our lives which is our only true lifeline.
In the parable that follows in Luke 18, a widow came to a worldly court for justice. However, as God’s children we come before a throne of grace. She pleaded out of her poverty, but we have all the riches available to us to meet our every need. This reality must never escape us.
As Passover and Unleavened Bread draw near, we must clearly see our desperate need for Our Father and His Savior and cry out in prayer for Their constant presence and the life it brings symbolized by the upcoming feast. In doing so, it becomes the evidence of our faith.
Bill Hutchison
