KEEP ON PRESSING

"I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8)


Our Lord was expressing a question to his disciples, as he expounded a parable about men trusting in their own righteousness and abilities, and not in God. Jesus was trying to explain to the one’s listening that men always should pray and seek the face of God for all things, and how important your faith is to this equation.

Notice he goes into a story about a woman and an unjust judge. We all know this story, how she petitioned this judge to give her what she wanted, but many times the judge flat out told her no, final answer. The power of this story is her faith would not let her give up, it would not let her give in to defeat, or accept the answer given her. Her faith gave her the determination that there has got to be a way to change this outcome. Of course we know it did, in the end her continual coming to the judge, pleading and pestering and not giving up broke down the judge’s stone cold decision; “Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.” (Luke 18:5) What he was saying was, I had made up my mind, but she keeps coming, she won’t stop, I must give her what she wants or she will never leave me alone!

Then the Lord stops us cold in our tracks in this story. His next words are;” And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith” (Luke 18:6) This is Jesus’ way of saying, look, there is something I want you to understand here, this is the way I want you to become. Jesus wraps this story up with our text today, will he find this kind of faith when he returns? Beloved, he is asking this to us right now, not to the long dead disciples of that day. Jesus tried to warn us thousands of years ago, that we, the children of the end, would need this kind of faith to make it thru. The trials and tribulations that are to come very soon on this earth will require a faith that stands in front of the trial, the devil and all watching and says, though he slay me, yet shall I serve him! It confidently proclaims, though he is able to deliver us, even if he doesn’t, we are not going to bow!

Beloved, this faith is not a gift. It cannot be mustered up in our own will power. This faith is nothing more than another word for confidence bread thru intimacy. The Bible speaks in Daniel of those end time saints rising up and doing exploits, mighty works in the power of God because of one reason, they KNOW their God. That means they are not drawing on the strength of some preachers picture of God, not some book, or compact disc series, but they are drawing this confidence from time spent alone, shut in, wrestling like Jacob with the angel into the wee hours of the morning with God Almighty himself. They have become intimate friends, speaking to each other, getting to know each other on personal levels a marriage between husband and wife could only dream of. And it has caused them to have a level of confidence (Faith) that says I don’t care what the situation looks like, I don’t care what people are saying, I know my Jesus, and I believe he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that day! Without this faith, how can we stand? Think about it, would Jesus ask this question, if it wasn’t very important we possess this in the last day? You can build this faith with God, but you must start now, while there is still time.