Can You Plead Your Case?

Pleading your case is the eighth action step in prayer. Pleading does not mean begging or becoming emotional. That neither impresses God nor elicits answers. In teaching the parable of the widow and the judge, Jesus said to His disciples, in effect, “Let Me show you not only how to pray, but also how to get answers.” He revealed how to plead one’s case before God. (See Luke 18:1.) Jesus began, “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men” (v. 2). Jesus used an example of the worst person to receive petitions. I believe He did this to emphasize that it is our legal rights that enable us to receive answers. We’ll talk more about this concept tomorrow. Jesus continued, “And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary’” (v. 3). In Jesus’ day, a widow was often without hope. If a married man died, his brother had to marry the man’s widow and care for her. If the second brother died, the third one had to marry her, and so on. Thus, a woman became a widow when no relatives remained to help her. The widow’s helplessness is significant. God wants you to pray with this attitude: “You’re the only One who can help me.” Often, we pray for God’s help, but we have a backup plan, just in case. God says, in essence, “I will not answer until you have no other place to turn. Then you will know that I am your Provider.” God doesn’t want to be treated as a “spare tire.” This woman had no option, no alternative. As we come to God with our petitions, we must depend completely on Him.

Prayer: Father, thank You for letting me come before You with my petitions to plead my case. I acknowledge that You are the only One whom I can depend on to hear and answer my prayers. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Thought: The Lord fulfills all your petitions.

Reading: Joshua 19–21; Luke 2:25–52