One of the most powerful things you can learn about prayer
is not to come to God as a beggar but to come to God as a child. And I want to share with you
a short little exhortation on 10 differences between coming to God as a widow or coming
to God as a bride. Don't pray like a widow. Pray like a bride. Let's look at this verse:
"Then he spoke a parable to them, saying that men are to always pray and not lose heart.
There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard a man. Now there was a widow
in the city; and she came to him, saying, 'Get justice for me from my enemy.' But he
would not for a while; but afterwards he said to himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man,
yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'
Then the Lord said, 'Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall not God avenge His
own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will
avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on
the earth?' " Luke 18:1-8. The first thing I want you to notice is the widow faced an unjust
judge, we face just judge when we pray. See don't come to God as a widow, come to God as a bride.
Remember that your God is just and your God is not only your judge, He's also your Father. Number two
is the widow came before the judge as a stranger. When we come in prayer we're not strangers,
we are children. That's why Jesus says when you speak to your God say, "Our Father who
is in heaven." That means we are known, we're on first name basis with God. We're His kids.
He is Abba Father as the Spirit cries out in us. Number three. She was alone without
friends or family but we have a support family of brothers and sisters in prayer. The amazing
part is that when you pray as a Christian you can enlist your brothers and sisters.
You can submit prayer requests at your church, you can submit prayer requests at HungryGen,
you can submit prayer requests with my ministry. And there will be other people that will come
alongside you and pray with you. You are not alone in prayer. You are not alone when you're going
through what you're going through because God sees you, and not only that but God hears the prayers
of other believers who are praying on your behalf. Number four. The judge made her stay at a distance
but we are told to come before the throne of grace according to Hebrews 4:16. The judge tried to keep
her away but our God, He draws near. He says, "Come near to me. I want to hear your complaints.
I want to hear you cry. I want you to tell me your problems." That's the difference between the bride
and the widow. Number five. She pled her case to the judge by herself. We come with the help
of angels that help to answer our prayers. You have to understand is that angels are involved
in carrying our prayers to God. Angels are involved in carrying God's answers back to
us. The Bible says the angels are the ministering spirits to those who are inheriting salvation.
I have a whole live stream and videos about angels that you can check it out on your time. Number
six. The widow woman, she had no representation. She was by herself. We have a lawyer and we have
an advocate, His name is Jesus Christ. And we have an intercessor His name is Jesus Christ.
So there's not only us crying out to God, it's Jesus Christ also interceding on our behalf.
Number seven. There was no law that would encourage the little lady but we have thousands
of promises of God that are encouraging us. There was nothing that was encouraging her petition,
her faith. Nothing to encourage and strengthen her. My friend, that's not us. We are not like
this widow. We are the bride of Christ. We have thousands of promises from the Lord that
encourage our faith to ask, that encourage our faith to plead with God to fast and to press in.
Number eight. The widow had only access at a certain time to this judge. But we can come to
the throne of God anytime we want to. You can come during the night, you can come during the day. God
doesn't have office hours. He's always ready to hear. God is omnipresent. He's present everywhere,
but God also can listen to everyone's prayer at the same time. And yet when you're praying,
you feel like God is only listening to you. How incredible is that? Because He's God. Number nine.
Her prayers provoke the judge but our prayers please our Father. The Bible says that judge was
provoked. He was like, "Man she's wearing me out." He was exhausted by her prayers. Our God is not
exhausted by our prayers. Our God is not provoked by our prayers. Our God invites our prayers.
I mean most of us struggle with praying. There's not going to be a time when God's gonna be,
"Come on, stop praying. Stop talking to me. Man I'm tired of hearing you." That's not our God!
He always wants to hear His children. He delights hearing and answering the prayers of His children.
Number ten. The widow had no precedence for her prayers but we have list of heroes of faith. What
God has done for others, becomes that platform where we now have faith God can do it for us.
We have a track record of other believers who went before us, who prayed like Hannah prayed for
having children. Others like Hezekiah, he prayed for his healing and God answered him. Like Daniel,
he prayed that God will remove his children or take his children out of Babylon. As David,
many times he prayed and inquired of God and God answered him. We see so many. Bartimaeus,
he cried out to God and God answered him. We know that Abraham prayed and God answered him. And so
many heroes in the Bible and their faith and their track record of prayer, serves us as an example.
Dear believer, do not approach God as a widow, do not approach God as an orphan, do not approach God
as someone that is not in His family. You are not a stranger to God. You are not some kind of a kid
that He just adopted. You are His child. You've been born into His family. you've been sanctified,
you've been filled with the Holy Ghost. So God expects to hear from you. God loves to hear from
you. Your voice, your noise, your cry is what He is expecting and anticipating. When was the last
time God heard from you? When was the last time you came with that attitude, attitude of faith?
Some people cry out to God out of desperation. But God wants you to pray out of revelation,
of who you are in Jesus, of who you are to Jesus, of who you are in God and who you are to God. My
friend that builds faith and prayers born out of faith are prayers that are going to bring results.
One of the reasons God does not answer prayer is when it's full of doubt and unbelief. But I
believe when you pray out of your identity, when you pray out of who you are, your prayers will
get answered. And you will actually pray because when you know who you are, that you are the bride.
You want to spend time with the bridegroom. When you know who you are, you're the child. You want
to spend time with your Father. But when you don't know that and you live with this orphan,
you know rejected, separated, God doesn't love me attitude, you're not gonna want to pray.
Why? Because you will see it as a chore, as a check mark. As something that you need to do.
That is something that you get to do. So pray like a bride.
Not like a widow. I hope this short message was an encouragement to your prayer life. If this was
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