Prayer and Luke 18

Luke 18 begins with two parables, unique among the gospels to Luke, which teach us about prayer.  The first is the parable of the unjust judge.  A woman came to a judge “who feared not God, neither regarded man,” and she sought for redress from him saying, “Avenge me of mine adversary.”  We don’t know what it is that she was seeking redress for, but apparently someone had wronged her and she was trying to go through the law instead of trying to take matters into her own hands.  The judge eventually granted her what she wanted, saying, “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.”  The Savior’s application was that if an unjust judge will grant such petitions, surely our Father in Heaven will do likewise: “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?”  The teaching on prayer is that we must pray always and “cry day and night” to our Father in Heaven for His help and blessing (Luke 18:1-8).  The parable specifically addresses prayer for help from our enemies, and surely those “enemies” represent any trial or trouble or challenge that we face—we must turn to God in fervent, repeated prayer and He will bless us.  In our dispensation the Lord highlighted the importance of this parable by quoting it in part in Doctrine and Covenants 101:81-85, encouraging them to seek redress for their wrongs in Missouri from the leaders of the land in addition to God Himself. 

At the very end of the first parable in Luke 18 Jesus asked, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”  This is perhaps the principle that ties the two parables of Luke 18 together: our prayers must be offered with faith.  The widow showed faith through perseverance.  We can likewise show the Father faith in our prayers by continuing in fervent pleading even if we feel our petitions have gone unanswered, knowing that the Lord will bless us according to His own time.  The second parable, the pharisee and the publican, teaches us to have faith in God instead of in ourselves.  The pharisee prayed showing he had trust only in himself: “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.”  He had faith in his own righteous acts but didn’t express any faith or trust in God in his self-aggrandizing pronunciation.  The publican, on the other hand, “Standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:9-13).  He recognized his own unworthiness before God, but he also had trust in God’s ability to show mercy and help him, a sinner.  In short, he had real faith, understanding the greatness of God compared to man as Moses did: “I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed” (Moses 1:10).  These parables of Luke 18 teach us the kind of persistence, humility, and faith that should be a part of our communication with God.