Luke 18: Praying Without Giving Up in a Distracted World

Introduction

“Prayer is not a theory. Prayer is a practice. It is an art.” With this message, Armand Elenga, pastor of Église La Compassion in Geneva, opens a new theme that the church will study until the end of the year: prayer and fasting.

After teachings on the healing of inner wounds, on kingdom partners and on the importance of bearing fruit, the pastor wants to pause to digest what has been received. We must not become “gluttons for the word,” who listen without putting it into practice. So we talk about prayer, and we pray.

The starting text is Luke 18:1: Jesus “spoke a parable to them that they must always pray and not give up.” The second reading is just three words: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). The message lays the foundations, then ends with a guided time of prayer following the model of the Lord's Prayer.

Outline of the message

1. Everyone prays, but are we praying the right way?

Why talk about prayer when everyone prays, even pagans in their own way? Because the real question is: “Am I praying the right way?” It is possible to pray a lot, to pray the way we are used to, and still to pray badly (James 4:3).
The disciples were adults who already prayed. They saw the disciples of John the Baptist, the Pharisees, the scribes. Yet they asked Jesus: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).
If they did so, it is because prayer holds a central place in the life and discipline of a child of God. It is a source of power and spiritual resources.

2. Spiritual strength is built in prayer

In the spiritual world, there is what the pastor calls “the balance of power, the balance of sacrifice.” Whoever prays consistently, pays the price, gives up nights of sleep and fasts will have more spiritual strength than someone who does not pray.
From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus was preparing to face the cross announced by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 53:1). And what he did was pray.
At Gethsemane, Jesus asked his disciples to pray with him, then withdrew about a stone's throw away. His sweat became “like great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44). When he came back, he found them asleep: “What, could you not watch with me for one hour?” (Matthew 26:40).
Jesus sometimes expects prayers that last, “not just 5 minutes.” Whoever spends hours in God's presence will receive more revelation and grace.
“You cannot operate beyond your prayer life.” The pastor insists: “Be a man, a woman of prayer. It is not for show, it is a necessity.”

3. Praying at all times in the end times

“But be watchful all the time, praying that you may be able to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36). The text does not say “once in a while,” it says “all the time.”
These things are already happening. All who desire to live godly lives will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12), and the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12). There will be disappointments, first among brothers and sisters in the house of God. Many lose heart, “they are hurt and they stay at home.”
The apostles, for their part, rejoiced that they were persecuted for the name of Jesus (Acts 5:41). Today, “we can no longer put up with anything.”
“Prayer is a seed. When you sow it, you must wait.” The one who answers is God, not your fasts. You cannot force God: he is sovereign and acts when he wants. Many find the time between the seed and the answer too long, and give up.
At work, you may be the only Christian. That is normal, Jesus announced it. But you are like a little leaven in a large lump of dough: it makes it rise little by little (Matthew 13:33). “You are not just anybody. You are the light of the world and you are the salt of the earth.” Do not be afraid, little flock (Luke 12:32).
This is also why the church must walk in sanctification. Paul writes to Timothy “how men ought to behave themselves in God's house” (1 Timothy 3:15). “We are not going to let just anything happen in the name of love. No, love disciplines.”

4. Getting out of the spirit of distraction

In the last days, people will be “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4). A meaningless dance like Gangnam Style has passed a billion views: “that is what the world loves.” But you, stay focused on the return of Jesus.
The pastor speaks of a “scroll demon.” We can no longer stand to stay calm, to think of Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. We no longer talk to each other, we no longer even admire the beauty of lakes and mountains. And it takes the time we need to read the Bible and pray.
To be warriors in prayer, we have to put the phone aside, sometimes turn it off. The pastor confides that he keeps it near him while praying only to write down what God puts on his heart, otherwise he forgets it somewhere else.
Your phone may tell you that you spent 8 hours on your screen, when you have not given one hour to God. “Your lord is the one to whom you give the most time.” Each person is a slave to whatever has overcome him (2 Peter 2:19). We are slaves of Jesus: he is the one who must rule in us, from morning until evening.
Like the city of Samaria captivated by Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:9-11), we can be “bewitched” little by little. The pastor prays that the church be set free from the spell of social media.
He does not condemn the Internet: “we must reach people where they are.” To those called to it, he says: do it well, “win souls, do not scroll.” But he believes God can turn a city upside down without the Internet, as in the time of John Wesley.

5. Paying the price and persevering

The pastor tells the story of the evangelist Tommy Hicks. He fasted and prayed for 40 days without receiving anything, “not a dream, not a voice.” He went back a second time, then a third, until he was at the edge of death, saying: “God, I do not admit defeat.”
God then entrusted him with a mission in Argentina. According to the pastor's account, a guard of the presidential palace, then the president himself, were healed. A stadium of 25,000 seats was opened to him, there were more people outside than inside, and “more than 3 million people gave their hearts to Jesus.”
This man had grown up alongside powerful servants of God and felt he had no anointing. He said: “Lord, use me.” Then he entered a time of fasting. “God answers prayers.” God is looking for men and women who say: “Here I am, use me.”
We live in a microwave and fast-food system: we want everything, right now, even in spiritual life. But “however long it takes, stay. Do not abort.”
The same goes for the tithe: we do not give it first to see an immediate change, but to honor God in faithfulness. “If God is not the God of your pocket, then he is not your God at all.” Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21).

6. When God withdraws without our noticing

God does not want anything to take up more room than he does: “I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images” (Isaiah 42:8). When television takes more time than God, it becomes your god, and God goes out “on tiptoe.”
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Revelation 3:20). Jesus is speaking to a church. We do not know when he went out: perhaps when it said “I am rich, and have need of nothing” (Revelation 3:17).
After the report of the spies, the people of Israel despised God. Joshua and Caleb took God's side, two against ten: “The majority is not always right.” The people were condemned to wander 40 years in the wilderness (Numbers 14).
The cloud and the pillar of fire were still there, but God had withdrawn. When the people wanted to go up and fight despite Moses' warning, they were defeated (Numbers 14:40-45). “The trappings of God's presence were there, but God was no longer there.”
Hence the pastor's call: to be men and women of prayer, sensitive to the presence of God.

7. Praying according to the model of the Lord's Prayer

“Pray like this” (Matthew 6:9). Jesus did not say “here is what you must pray,” otherwise reciting would be enough. He gave a how: prayer follows an order.
“Our Father in heaven.” Prayer does not begin with your needs or your complaints, but with the Father. Before asking, we bless, glorify and worship the Father. Your source is God: “My help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2).
“Hallowed be your name.” To hallow God's name is to set it apart: we do not mix it with sin, we do not say it lightly or as a joke. It is also asking forgiveness and being washed, so that our mouths and our hearts may be made holy.
“Let your kingdom come.” God's kingdom is his government, and God governs us by the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit is more than a GPS. The GPS of this world sometimes gets it wrong. The Holy Spirit never does.” Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God (Romans 8:14), and we are called to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).
The pastor deliberately stops at “let your kingdom come.” The rest of the Lord's Prayer will be taught in the next messages of the series.

Key takeaways

It is not enough to pray: we must learn to pray the right way, as the disciples asked Jesus.
Your spiritual strength is built in your prayer life: you cannot operate beyond your prayer life.
Prayer is a seed: God is sovereign and acts when he wants, so persevere without giving up.
Your lord is the one to whom you give the most time. Distraction can push God out of your life without you noticing.
Prayer begins with the Father, with the hallowing of his name and with the reign of his Spirit in your life, before your requests.

Personal application

How much time did you spend on your phone yesterday, and how much time in God's presence?
Is there a prayer you gave up on because the answer seemed too slow in coming?
When you pray, where do you start: with your needs, or with blessing and worshiping the Father?
How can you, this week, speak God's name with more respect, in your words and in the way you live?
In which areas of your life are you asking the Holy Spirit to govern you and lead you?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why does Jesus say we must always pray?

For Armand Elenga, prayer holds a central place in the life of a child of God: it is a source of spiritual strength. In the end times, with their persecutions, disappointments and distractions, Jesus asks us to stay watchful and to pray at all times (Luke 21:36), and not just once in a while.

What does “you cannot operate beyond your prayer life” mean?

The pastor explains that a person's spiritual strength is built by their prayer life. Whoever pays the price and spends time in God's presence stands firmer in trials than someone who does not pray. At Gethsemane, Jesus asked his disciples to keep watch with him for one hour, and they fell asleep.

Why does the Lord's Prayer begin with the Father?

Jesus said, “Pray like this” (Matthew 6:9): he gave a way to pray, not a formula to recite. For Armand Elenga, prayer follows an order: it does not begin with our needs, but with the Father, whom we bless and worship, then with the hallowing of his name and the coming of his kingdom.