Crazy Faith. We live in a world that can seem unfriendly to followers of Christ. Our Lord is aware of this and he knew that we, as Christ-like individuals need to be resilient and spiritually tough. In the parable regarding the persistence of the widow in both Matthew and Luke, Jesus demonstrates that this spiritual resilience is entirely the product of prayer. Unlike Jesus’ other parables, the main lesson of this one is that God wants us to pray and not give up, or lose heart!

“Losing heart” is a product of the weariness that comes from possibly living in a sinful, and sometimes hostile world. We may be tempted to lose heart because of the injustice we see all around us. Sometimes we consider just throwing in the towel, when we are mistreated or misunderstood. And other times, we can grow weary when we face negative circumstances beyond our control. Prayer is not something that we are permitted to do, or something that we ought to do. Prayer is something that we must do if we are to maintain a courageous, unwavering faith in a rapidly-deteriorating world.

Don’t get me wrong. There are many things that we should be grateful for. Yet there are still some things that may seem out of our control! Prayer is the only answer. When I can’t do it for myself, I have to leave it at the footsteps of our Heavenly Father. And never cease believing that He is working it out on my behalf! Crazy faith, maybe. But why not? Crazy is what makes others pay attention, and our God can handle all our “beyond crazy” prayers!

“In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ” Luke‬ ‭18‬:‭2‬-‭5‬ ‭