Pray Anyway
August 23, 2026
CENTRAL TEXT: Luke 18:1-8
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14
LEADER: The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
ALL: One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to inquire in his temple.
LEADER: I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living!
ALL: Wait for the LORD;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the LORD!
PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH: 2 Peter 3:8-14
LEADER: But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
2 Pet. 3:11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
2 Pet. 3:14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER:
CONFESSION OF SIN:
LEADER: Let us confess our sin to the Lord.
ALL: We know, without being told, what is right. And yet we often only do what is right in our own eyes alone. We applaud the idea of what is just, but rarely pursue it, much less pray for its appearance. Forgive us our indifference. You are both just and the justifier of those who faith in Your Son. Help us to love what is just and to pray with abandon for it. Help us to wait well and learn contentment that still persists in the pursuit of what is good.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Acts 8:32-33 (Isaiah 53:7,8)
LEADER: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
ALL: Thanks be to God!
BENEDICTION: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
LEADER: Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Related Scripture:
Revelation 6:9–11
Discussion Questions:
- It may be too personal a question, so feel free to pass. What’s a prayer of yours that has gone unanswered, at least insofar as the specific desired outcome remains unrealized? Even if you don’t share the content of the petition of God, what has been your experience as you’ve prayed, whether persistently or falteringly?
- It always pays to consider the context of any passage of Scripture. What is in the background of this parable–its immediately preceding topic?
- What would the earliest followers of Jesus have been facing as a consequence of their faith and identification with Jesus, which makes the prayer of our passage make sense?
- Why does Jesus choose a judge with this profile as his first character? Why would the woman in His parable have had unique challenges as a woman, making her petition for justice particularly understandable?
- How did Jesus make use of injustice toward Him?
- In asking in Gethsemane for the hour to pass him by–that is, for the cross to be avoided– did his prayer go unanswered? Defend your position.
Illustrations:
QUOTES:
To pray is to pay attention or, shall we say, to ‘listen’ to someone or something other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention—be it on a landscape, or a poem or a geometrical problem or an idol or the True God—he completely forgets his own ego and desires in listening to what the other has to say to him, he is praying.
- W.H. Auden, “Work, Carnival, Prayer”
Don't be sorry for me, Mr. Wingfold. The poor dwarfie, as the children call me, is not a creature to be pitied. You don't know how happy I am as I lie here, knowing my uncle is in the next room, and will come the moment I call him--and that there is one nearer still, whom I haven't even to call. I am his, and he shall do with me just as he likes. I fancy sometimes, when I have to lie still, that I am a little sheep, tied hands and feet--I should have said all four feet, if I am a sheep lying on an altar--the bed here--burning away, in the flame of life, that consumes the deathful body--burning, heart and soul and sense, up to the great Father.
- “Rachel” in George MacDonald’s trilogy Thomas Wingfold, Curate, Vol 2
There are sad thoughts sometimes which in their season I would not lose, for I would have their influences with me always. In their season they are better than a host of happy ones, and there is joy at the root of all. But if they did come from physical causes, would it follow that they did not come from God? Is he not the God of the dying as well as the God of the living?
- “Rachel” in George MacDonald’s trilogy Thomas Wingfold, Curate, Vol 2
People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.
- Dr. Who, “Blink”
pray as you can, and do not pray as you can’t. . . .the more you pray, the better it goes; the less you pray the worse it becomes. . . .begin wherever you find yourself. Make any acts you want to make and feel you ought to make; but do not force yourself into feelings of any kind.
- H. John Chapman Spiritual Letters.
Books / Docs:
“Prayer, rebelling against the status quo,” David Wells, from 1979
Thomas Wingfold, Curate, George MacDonald
A Short Guide to Spiritual Formation, Alex Sosler (a Montreat Prof!)
SERMONS / TALKS:
“An Audacious Faith,” Sinclair Ferguson