A number of years ago, Janet and I were driving home at night and I was passed by a green Jeep bearing a Bible verse license plate – Ps 91 11. In that case, which is part of a much larger story, the verse was from the Psalms and was about safe passage for weary travelers. Since that time, I have had an interest in watching license plates to see if they might contain a reference to the Scripture. Every so often I run across one. And when I find one, I really pay attention because it seems that verses I find that way seem to remind me of things that I am already thinking about.
Before the days of Bible apps on cell phones, I actually carried a physical Bible in the car on the front seat. Now, although I still carry a Bible in the trunk, I can call up any verse instantly on my phone. And that came in handy yesterday!
As most of you know, it has been a challenging several weeks around here. I have been focused on the topic of prayer and there have been a number of health concerns that family members and friends are dealing with. Yesterday afternoon, after an appointment, I was getting into my car and noticed the car in front of me was moving slowly.
In fact, rather than a family name or any sort of decipherable acronym, the rear plate on the car was quite direct in the message it was trying to convey. Simply stated, it read “Luke 18 1.” No colons or other references to the Bible, but it was clearly a message.
So… of course, I opened my phone app and looked up Luke 18:1, our verse for tonight. The verse, from the Gospel of the good doctor Luke, says, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
What struck me about this passage is that the message is about prayer, not the parable. In fact, the parable is a distant second to the idea of prayer. And it fits right in to the themes of what I have been concerned with for the past several weeks.
I am filled with gratitude and grateful appreciation for the blessings that we have had. And, of course, I continue to pray for healing for those individuals who are in my life and need special encouragement and support at this time. As I have mentioned, I sometimes realize that my prayer life could be stronger – in fact, I suspect that many of us feel that way from time to time.
As our verse for tonight highlights, we should ALWAYS pray and never give up, even when the odds seem against us. That’s because everything is possible with God.
My encouragement this evening is that God Himself tells us to always pray and when we don’t know what to pray for the Holy Spirit actually intercedes for us and prays on our behalf. How great is that!
My prayer is that we will all turn heavenward and increase our prayer life in accordance with Luke 18:1. After all, although we are all busy, we should never forget our prayer life – ever. In fact, Bill Hybels once wrote a book titled, “Too Busy Not to Pray…” It was a primer on how necessary prayer is, regardless of how busy we are. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…