Christians from many different traditions see the hand of God active in the ending of enslavement to the power of sin. It can be a very uniting experience of the saving action of God which brings freedom. I have seen the seeds of revival born in such experiences. When I read about the song of triumph over oppression from Moses and Miriam (Exodus 15:1-21), I also think of the hymn, The Right Hand of God.

Jesus tells us to always pray and not lose heart for this very reason.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to teach them that they should always pray and never become discouraged. – Luke 18:1 GNT

The story goes like this —

“In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. And there was a widow in that same town who kept coming to him and pleading for her rights, saying, ‘Help me against my opponent!’ For a long time the judge refused to act, but at last he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or respect people, yet because of all the trouble this widow is giving me, I will see to it that she gets her rights. If I don’t, she will keep on coming and finally wear me out!’” – Luke 18:2-5 GNT

Why is it that people think Jesus is comparing the judge with God – it has absolutely nothing to do with a comparison. It is a story about how to pray and how to never stop praying.

Now, will God not judge in favor of his own people who cry to him day and night for help? Will he be slow to help them? – Luke 18:7 GNT

There is basically a choice being offered to me – either I pray or I become discouraged – my choice.

In describing the type of prayer I should be offering Jesus shares another story.

Jesus also told this parable to people who were sure of their own goodness and despised everybody else. “Once there were two men who went up to the Temple to pray: one was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. – Luke 18:9-10 GNT

What a way to measure my heart – who represents me the most as I look how I pray? Anyone else find it hard to determine who was praying correctly before Jesus’ points out how God viewed their prayers? One was a religious leader, respected, and the other worked a hated profession open to lying and stealing.

The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed,^[a] ‘I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there.I fast two days a week, and I give you one tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his face to heaven, but beat on his breast and said, ‘God, have pity on me, a sinner!’I tell you,” said Jesus, “the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home. For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great.” – Luke 18:11-14 GNT

God shows up in the temple and one says look at my righteousness and the other says look at my humility. One is looking for brownie points and one is hoping that God sees he does not have a self-righteous bone in his body and is hoping beyond hope that God will show him mercy.

I believe I am also called to pray and come alongside my Jewish neighbours.

Even today, whenever they read the Law of Moses, the veil still covers their minds. But it can be removed, as the scripture says about Moses: “His veil was removed when he turned to the Lord.” – 2 Corinthians 3:15-16 GNT

May I not only turn to the Lord in prayer but may I bring others with me. May we all be united in our faith together.

“That’s the ground motive of Spirit-directed, Christ-mediated prayer—to simply know him better and enjoy his presence. Consider how different this is from the normal way we use prayer. In our natural state we pray to God to get things. We may believe in God, but our deepest hopes and happiness reside in things as in how successful we are or in our social relationships. We therefore pray mainly when our career or finances are in trouble, or when some relationship or social status is in jeopardy. When life is going smoothly, and our truest heart treasures seem safe, it does not occur to us to pray. Also, ordinarily our prayers are not varied—they consist usually of petitions, occasionally some confession (if we have just done something wrong). Seldom or never do we spend sustained time adoring and praising God. In short, we have no positive, inner desire to pray. We do it only when circumstances force us. Why? We know God is there, but we tend to see him as a means through which we get things to make us happy. For most of us, he has not become our happiness.” – Timothy Keller