Equal Faithfulness

"Then the Master said, 'Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won't step in and work justice for His chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won't He stick up for them? I assure you, He will. He will not drag His feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when He returns?'" Luke 18:8 (The Message)

The verse before this was about a widow who kept coming before this judge pleading for him to help her get justice from her adversary. This judge was neither a lover of God or of the people under his jurisdiction. She kept coming and coming until the judge finally said to himself, "I will grant this woman what she wants only to keep her from wearing me down." So it was done.

This is a parable that Jesus was telling his disciples. The passage you see here is the one where Jesus is telling us that God sees and knows and hears us when we come to Him in prayer. And He will come and save us from whatever our 'adversary' is.

But the last question. That stopped me in my tracks and I had to reread it a couple of times. Do you see what it is asking? Do you get the grasp of the deep, spiritual meaning of it?

This is how I interpret it. It is saying, at least to me, that we come to God, asking all these things--protection, salvation, wisdom, whatever--and He gladly comes and takes our needs and requests because He is our loving Father. And in a way, don't we expect Him to take care of them for us? After all, isn't that what He does? Isn't that what He says He wants us to do?

But what about us? Do we do the same for Him? Do we defend Him when others curse Him or use His name to curse something they don't like? Do we come and build Him up when others are trying to tear Him, His kingdom, His power, down? Do we assure Him of our love and faithfulness to Him in spite of our circumstances?

I just find it sad that, even before He knew us, He had to question our faithfulness. The sadder truth is that He did know us and already knew the answer.

In this case, let's prove Him wrong. I am asking this with total respectfulness. Let's prove to Him that He can trust us and that He will find us faithful to Him when He comes back to this earth. It's the least we can do, don't you think?